Establishment of a System for Monitoring and Control of Cross Contamination in the Laboratory of Microbiological Analysis of Food during 2009

Within the activities for quality control in the laboratory, the final results of a particular analyteare now recognized as intermediates, due to the relevance given to quality assurance, as the ultimategoal of programs for quality management. This concept makes it necessary to establishmentof integral tools, to detect events such as cross-contamination, and measures to avoid affectingthe analysis method. Objective: to established a system for monitoring and control of crosscontaminationin the laboratory of microbiological analysis of food. Materials and methods:Flowcharts were developed to control the proceedings on the populations of aerobe mesophilicsand molds originated from pollution in the environment, surfaces, sterile material and culturemedia, which included a decision tree designed to perform control actions based on tolerance intervals,which were established as objective tool to decision-making leading to normalize countsof microbial populations in question. Results: Warning limits stricter were obtained for aerobicmesophilic and mold populations in the different controls, except for environment of media preparationand the corresponding for sterile material. Conclusion: The process developed allowedto complement the system of internal quality control in the laboratory, to provide of an objectivetool for closing nonconformities because of cross-contamination.