The bottling of natural mineral water began in Europe in the 16th Century and became industrialized since 1800. With the reduction of the production costs, following the introduction of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in the '70s, bottled water has become a popular product with a constantly increasing market demand. This increase was driven not only by socio-cultural phenomena (e.g. product image), but also by the inaccessibility of water sources suitable for human consumption and/or by consumers' distrust of the public authorities that administer them. In order to offer a natural and accessible product, the mineral water industry has developed chemical-physical and microbiological process monitoring systems of the entire production chain. This thesis aims to describe how the control of microbiological hazards takes place in a mineral water bottling company, to verify which phases of the production chain may be most at risk of nonconformities, and subsequently to identify any other critical control points (CCP) present in the process considering the already existing ones. The goals are to focus the microbiological analysis on the most sensitive points of the supply chain, to prevent contaminations of the downstream parts of the latter, and to elaborate standard operating procedures (SOP) to reduce the risk of contamination. For this purpose, the microbiological non-conformities recorded in the company database in the period 11/13/2019 - 04/20/2023 were compared. For each non-conformity the following data were retrieved: the step of the production process (and the relative date/time) where the non-conformities were detected, the associated index of microbial contamination (in accordance with the law currently in force: Legislative Decree 8 October 2011, n. 176 and Decree 10 February 2015), and the pumping source from which the sample derived. For the non-conformities attributed to the finished product, the type of water (i.e. still mineral water, slightly sparkling or sparkling) and the bottling line of origin were also considered. The products obtained from six bottling lines were included in the study, or rather only those related to the mineral water supply chain. The latter was the only restrictive criterion on the data selection in order not to cross the production chain with a different one present in the company (mixed bottling lines), allocated to the production of soft drinks and food supplements. Data showed that during the period considered only 53 non-compliances out of 50,800 microbiological analyses were detected and that only nine were attributable to true unique contamination events in the bottling lines. This might be due to the non-compliant intervention of the operators working on the lines. The remaining non-compliances seem due to sampling errors and/or incorrect application of the methods of analysis.
L’imbottigliamento dell’acqua minerale naturale ha avuto inizio nel XVI secolo in Europa, per poi assumere dimensioni industriali solo a partire dal 1800. Con l’abbattimento dei costi di produzione, reso possibile dall’introduzione del polietilene tereftalato (PET) negli anni ’70, l’acqua imbottigliata è divenuta un prodotto popolare con una richiesta di mercato in costante aumento. Tale incremento è stato trainato non solo da fenomeni socio-culturali (es. immagine di prodotto) ma anche dall’inaccessibilità a fonti idriche idonee al consumo umano e/o dalla sfiducia dei consumatori nei confronti degli enti pubblici che le amministrano. Al fine di proporre un prodotto naturale ed accessibile l'industria delle acque minerali ha sviluppato sistemi di monitoraggio di processo chimico-fisici e microbiologici dell’intera filiera produttiva. Questo lavoro di tesi si pone l’obiettivo di descrivere come avviene il controllo del pericolo microbiologico in un’azienda di imbottigliamento di acque minerali e di verificare quali fasi della filiera produttiva possano essere maggiormente a rischio di non conformità. Ciò al fine di identificare possibili ulteriori punti critici di controllo (CCP) di processo rispetto a quelli già presenti, nel tentativo di focalizzare le analisi microbiologiche nei punti più sensibili della filiera e quindi prevenire la contaminazione delle parti più a valle della stessa, ed elaborare procedure operative standard (SOP) atte a diminuire il rischio di contaminazione. A tal fine si sono confrontate le non conformità microbiologiche registrate nel database aziendale nel periodo 13/11/2019-20/04/2023. Di tali non conformità si è determinato il punto del processo produttivo (e la relativa data/ora) ove sono state individuate, l’indice di contaminazione microbica di cui è stato superato il limite associato (in accordo con le normative di settore attualmente in vigore: D.Lgs. 8 ottobre 2011, n. 176 e Decreto 10 febbraio 2015), e la fonte d’emungimento da cui derivava il campione. Per le non conformità riscontrate sul prodotto finito si è inoltre differenziato il gusto dello stesso (acqua minerale naturale, leggermente frizzante o frizzante) e la linea di imbottigliamento di provenienza. Sono stati selezionati i prodotti ottenuti da 6 linee di imbottigliamento, dedicate alla sola filiera delle acque minerali, unico criterio applicato sulla selezione dei dati al fine di non incrociare tale filiera produttiva con una seconda presente in azienda (linee di imbottigliamento miste), volta alla produzione di bibite analcoliche ed integratori alimentari. Dai dati ottenuti si evince che 53 analisi microbiologiche su 50.800 eseguite sono esitate in una non conformità e come solo 9 di queste siano attribuibili a veri e propri eventi isolati di contaminazione delle linee di imbottigliamento, verosimilmente a causa dell’intervento non conforme degli operatori di linea che vi lavorano. La restante parte sembra di fatto imputabile ad errori di campionamento e/o nell’applicazione delle metodiche d’analisi.
Il controllo microbiologico nella produzione industriale di acque minerali: analisi delle non conformità di filiera.
CROVATO, LORENZO
2022/2023
Abstract
The bottling of natural mineral water began in Europe in the 16th Century and became industrialized since 1800. With the reduction of the production costs, following the introduction of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in the '70s, bottled water has become a popular product with a constantly increasing market demand. This increase was driven not only by socio-cultural phenomena (e.g. product image), but also by the inaccessibility of water sources suitable for human consumption and/or by consumers' distrust of the public authorities that administer them. In order to offer a natural and accessible product, the mineral water industry has developed chemical-physical and microbiological process monitoring systems of the entire production chain. This thesis aims to describe how the control of microbiological hazards takes place in a mineral water bottling company, to verify which phases of the production chain may be most at risk of nonconformities, and subsequently to identify any other critical control points (CCP) present in the process considering the already existing ones. The goals are to focus the microbiological analysis on the most sensitive points of the supply chain, to prevent contaminations of the downstream parts of the latter, and to elaborate standard operating procedures (SOP) to reduce the risk of contamination. For this purpose, the microbiological non-conformities recorded in the company database in the period 11/13/2019 - 04/20/2023 were compared. For each non-conformity the following data were retrieved: the step of the production process (and the relative date/time) where the non-conformities were detected, the associated index of microbial contamination (in accordance with the law currently in force: Legislative Decree 8 October 2011, n. 176 and Decree 10 February 2015), and the pumping source from which the sample derived. For the non-conformities attributed to the finished product, the type of water (i.e. still mineral water, slightly sparkling or sparkling) and the bottling line of origin were also considered. The products obtained from six bottling lines were included in the study, or rather only those related to the mineral water supply chain. The latter was the only restrictive criterion on the data selection in order not to cross the production chain with a different one present in the company (mixed bottling lines), allocated to the production of soft drinks and food supplements. Data showed that during the period considered only 53 non-compliances out of 50,800 microbiological analyses were detected and that only nine were attributable to true unique contamination events in the bottling lines. This might be due to the non-compliant intervention of the operators working on the lines. The remaining non-compliances seem due to sampling errors and/or incorrect application of the methods of analysis.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12608/49901