Food safety information about BPI's product: Microbial Testing

A primary function of the Quality Assurance Department is to monitor and record chemical and microbiological results on incoming raw material as well as finished product. QA draws a small sample of BPI product from each carton as it is being filled or approximately every 10 seconds. The sample becomes part of a composite sample representing each box on a pallet. The composite sample is analyzed for fat, moisture and protein. Each box is bar-coded and this information is entered into a corporate QA computerized pallet and bar coded box tracking system.

Throughout each production day, two-hour composite samples are sent to an outside laboratory for microbial testing. These tests include Total Plate Count, E.coli, Coliform, Salmonella, Listeria, Staph and E.coli 0157:H7. A daily composite is also sent to an outside laboratory to test for Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein or GFAP. GFAP is unique to the tissues of the Central Nervous System or CNS. BPI confirms with the laboratory that the representative daily product composite samples were tested for any exposure to GFAP-CNS tissue and no evidence was found. All microbial information, including a GFAP result, is entered into the QA computerized pallet and box tracking system. Product is not released for shipment without a completed microbial profile, including a negative E.coli 0157:H7 result and confirmation of no evidence of GFAP-CNS tissue.

BPI's finished product sampling and testing program is the most rigorous in the industry, assuring our customers of product quality and safety. The sampling and testing program was recently evaluated by Iowa State University Microbiology and Statistics departments in conjunction with BPI's re-assessment of its HACCP plans. The reviewers commented that:

BPI's sampling and testing program is currently the most rigorous program in the industry [we are] aware of. . . . The sampling and testing program managed by BPI is in fact statistically superior to [other programs sometimes referred to by USDA as models for the industry], with higher probabilities of detection at all projected population levels for E.coli O157:H7.