LESSON 1: IMPLEMENT SAMPLING PROCEDURES

Food is essential for keeping us strong, healthy and alert so safety is vital and is ensured through food sampling.

Why Food Sampling is Important in the Food Industry

Food sampling is extremely important in the food industry. Quality control is a process that helps to target, identify and
rectify defects in finished food products.

This can be achieved by eliminating the sources of quality problems to ensure safety and customer requirements are
continually met. When looking for trace elements within food items, sampling is a critical step as it’s used to check that
food is safe to consume and doesn’t contain harmful elements.

A food sample test is carried out by putting the product through a physical analysis and this could be undertaken by a
manufacturer or by the official food law enforcement team not only for control purposes but also for research and public
information.

How to Take a Food Sample

To ensure that food is fully safe to eat, a food sample needs to be taken and process needs to be carried out including
identifying the reason behind the sampling whether it be a customer complaint or part of an investigation.

You must also ensure the food sample equipment is sterile and is not contaminated. Naturally, washing your hands before
taking a food sample is essential. You must also make sure the sample size is correct in accordance with the analysis and
several similar samples must be taken.

Lastly, you must ensure your finished product is stored in the correct refrigerated conditions and if it needs to be
transported, it must remain in the same conditions throughout the process.

Why Food Sampling is Effective

There are many options available to help enroll consumers by using free samples, as a free sample is a great marketing tool
and they are generally cheaper than most traditional advertising methods. Here are four reasons why sampling methods
work well:
 Breaks down price barrier – ensuring a product has the correct price point is vital and offering free samples can
help consumers to try products that may be outside their usual budget and products that they may have never tried
before.
 No strings attached – giving consumers access to free samples, ensures they don’t have to commit to purchasing
this product and gives the consumer time to think about the purchase, especially if it is their first time buying it at
the risk of not liking it.
 Taste and quality – usually the best marketing for food items is the taste and quality and by offering free samples
you can create a key marketing strategy as consumers can try the products and therefore know for definite if they
like the product or not.
 Reciprocation – when consumers receive free samples, it means there are no strings attached for consumers.
Although, consumers may buy a product because they feel obligated to after getting something for free.

What Are the Four Basic Sampling Methods?

Sampling is an essential stage in the food and beverage industry and there are four main sampling methods:

 Traditional retail – traditional retail stores usually offer free samples for their customers as they walk round the
store and food sampling within retail stores is the most recognizable form of sampling as it encourages customer
to taste the foods very close to the product to ensure fast and easy sales
 From the company – consumers sometimes contact companies who request samples and these companies may
oblige because offering free samples directly, the company shows a sense of confidence and transparency and if
customers have information and a sample in their hands, it can help to drive sales for the store.
 Delivery and subscriptions – as food delivery becomes more common, sampling has now gone from food
companies to customers doorsteps and with delivery and paid subscriptions now have the opportunity to get their
products noticed by utilizing e-commerce.
 Technology – many companies use technology to help engage their customers, such as; QR codes on crisp packets
or sweet wrappers. Meaning customers are likely to buy again and may actually win a prize alongside.
***https://www.hqts.com/food-quality-the-value-of-food-sampling/

Food Quality Measurement Instruments

1. Food analysis equipment – various instruments that can be used to measure the fat, protein, and oil
concentrations in food samples and detect the level of gluten in foods.
2. Pesticide detection instruments – detects the presence of pesticides in food samples.
 3. Electron Spin Resonance Spectrometers – also known as electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), these
instruments can be used to test the purity of products without physically destroying or altering samples.
4. Cell and colony counters – can be used to measure the colonies of microorganisms that have grown on an agar
plate prepared from a sample.
5. Incubators – are used to provide a controlled environment (i.e. temperature, humidity, CO2 level) for food safety
testing.
6. Chemical imaging (NIR/Raman) systems – devices that use analysis of samples by detecting and analyzing light
that is in the near-infrared, visible, or near-ultraviolet light areas of the electromagnetic spectrum.
7. Magnetic analyzers – detect low levels of iron in food samples by measuring the imbalance in resonance
between two air core coils which can be translated into a signal that reflects the level of iron present in the sample.
8. Moisture analyzers – also known as moisture balances, these devices are used to establish the percentage of
moisture in a food sample, either by weighing the sample before and after an evaporation process or by using an
absorption spectrometer to analyze the gas emitted during evaporation to establish its content.
9. Polarimeters – devices that pass polarized light through a sample and measure the angle at which the emitted
light emerges. Optically active substances will cause a change in the polarization angle of the emitted light, which
can be used to establish concentrations of sugars such as glucose and sucrose.
10. Refractometers – are devices that measure the angle of refraction from light that is passed through a liquid, gel,
or solid substance and using that to establish parameters such as the salinity and sugar content.
11. Rheometers & Viscometers – are instruments that can measure the viscosity of a fluid and the behavior of fluids
when shear or stress forces are applied to it. Having this information can reveal the properties of the fluid that
relate to its structure and elasticity.
12. Saccharimeters – are instruments that specifically measure the concentration of sugars present in a solution. They
do so by measuring the refractive index of the liquid as light as passed through it.
13. Titration Equipment – can be used to detect and measure the concentration of a substance within a liquid
through acid/base titration. The addition of titrant of known concentration to a known volume of solution with
unknown concentration can determine that unknown concentration through a reaction neutralization.
14. Other equipment – additional equipment often employed in food quality applications includes ovens,
centrifuges, water baths, and dry baths.

Food sampling and preparation for microbial analysis

Microbial analysis of food
 Food is a good culture medium for growth of many microorganisms.
 The presence of microorganisms in food causes decomposition and spoilage of food.
 Therefore, microbial analysis of food is important in quality assurance of food.
 Microbial analysis of food gives idea about:
 The quality of food:
 By determining type and number of microorganisms in food and by comparing this standard value,
we can evaluate quality of food
 The sanitary condition of food:
 Microbial analysis helps to predict possible contamination of food.
 The storage condition:
 By microbial analysis we can detect whether food is stored in proper condition or not.
 The types of microorganisms in food:
 By microbial analysis, we can detect pathogen or their toxic product if present in food.
 The quality of raw material:
 It gives quality of raw materials used in food.
 Evaluation of effectiveness:
 Microbial analysis also evaluates the effectiveness of preservative methods employed.
***https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/machinery-tools-supplies/overview-of-food-processing-equipment/

Steps in microbial analysis of food:

1. Sampling:
 Sampling is an important step in microbial analysis.
 Sample of food can be obtained from processing line from storage house or from market.
 Sample:
 The sample should be representative of whole lot of food.
 Sample should be collected randomly from the lot.
 The principle is to avoid bias and to draw sufficient number of sample units.
 Sampling device:
 Sterile spoon pipette, stirrer, swab etc. are used for taking samples.
 Sterile scissors, knife, can opener etc. are used for opening food packages.
 Liquid and small particles are sampled with sampling tube, spoon, droppers etc.
  Large food materials are cut by knife.
 For surface samples, knife, swabbing or sticky cello phone tape is used.
 Number of samples:
 If food is examined for Salmonella, usually co-samples are collected 5 samples are needed
for other organisms.
2. Techniques for sample collection:
 When the product is in big container:
Steps in sample collection are:
 Outer surface of container is cleaned by washing or by 70% ethanol.
 Container is opened with the help of sterile cutting instrument.
 If the food is in bulk, the sample are collected from various places within container.
 In case of liquid sample, it is first agitated to form homogenous mixture and sample is
taken.
 When the food is in small container:
 When the sample is in small container, they should be taken directly to the lab for analysis.
3. Preparation of sample:
 For solid food sample: Solid food is mixed with sterile diluent in mechanical blender to obtain
homogenous suspension. For example, when 10gm food is added to 100ml diluent, 10-1 dilution is
obtained.
 For liquid food sample: Liquid food is serially diluted to obtain 10-1, 10-2, 10-3 dilution.
4. Transportation of sample:
 Multiplication and death of sample (microorganisms) should be prevented during transport of sample.
 The sample should be delivered to lab immediately.
 Perishable and unfrozen sample should be cooled to 0-5oC and transported in insulated container.
 Frozen product must be maintained in frozen condition until analysis.
 Sampling reports should be prepared and sent with sample.
5. Sampling report:
 The report should provide the following information:
 Name and address of person collecting sample.
 Date, time, place and purpose of sample collection.
 Nature of food
 Name of manufacturer, importer, seller, batch number, manufacture data, expiry date etc.
 Method of sampling, size and no. of samples, temperature of product at the time of sampling.
 Suggested test can also be given.
6. Sampling plan:
 Choice of sampling plan depends upon the organism present in food, the nature of food and whether the
food is raw or processed or eaten directly, type of consumer i.e. normal, infant, old person or ill person.
 Sampling plan is basically a statement of criteria of acceptance based upon examination of required
number of sample units by specific method.
 Sampling plan are of two types:
 This plan is simplest and is used to ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ food product.
***https://www.onlinebiologynotes.com/food-sampling-and-preparation-for-microbial-
analysis/
What do the results mean?

When food samples are examined the results are interpreted as one of the three grades of microbiological
quality and these are detailed below:
 Satisfactory
The term applied to food which is of good microbiological quality and therefore the numbers of
bacteria found were relatively low or not detected in the food.

 Borderline
The term applied to foods that reflect a borderline limit of microbiological quality and therefore the
numbers of bacteria detected were higher than expected. A review of food handling procedures is
necessary to ensure that safe food is produced.

 Unsatisfactory
The term applied to foods with relatively high numbers of bacteria and indicates a problem with
food hygiene and handling procedures. A review of working procedures must be conducted and
Food Safety Officers may take additional food samples together with further inspection of the
premises to determine the possible cause of the contamination.
https://www.telford.gov.uk/info/20500/food/749/food_samples