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 analyte are now recognized as intermediates, due to the relevance given to quality assurance, as the ultimate goal of programs for quality management. This concept makes it necessary to establishment of integral tools, to detect events such as cross-contamination, and measures to avoid affecting the analysis method. Objective: to established a system for monitoring and control of cross-contamination in the laboratory of microbiological analysis of food. Materials and methods: Flowcharts were developed to control the proceedings on the populations of aerobe mesophilics and molds originated from pollution in the environment, surfaces, sterile material and culture media, 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 counts of microbial populations in question. Results: Warning limits stricter were obtained for aerobic mesophilic and mold populations in the different controls, except for environment of media preparation and the corresponding for sterile material. Conclusion: The process developed allowed to complement the system of internal quality control in the laboratory, to provide of an objective tool for closing nonconformities because of cross-contamination.