When it’s time to wash down the facilities in food-processing plants to clear out any pathogenic bacteria, processors need to watch for one unintended consequence. Washing the floor drains could actually make it easier for any Listeria monocytogenes to travel from the drain to points on the processing line.
Food Safety Consortium researchers at Kansas State University already knew that the open floor drains in processing environments can harbor the bacteria, which is why those drains are the targets of high-pressure washing and cleaning.