How to Take Sterile Food Samples

Food outbreaks are a serious occurrence that requires inspection and acquirement of sterile samples by a food investigator. There are a variety of rules and regulations when it comes to taking proper sterile samples since cross contamination can hinder the investigation. All rules and regulations should be followed in order to ensure that the samples are obtained with sterilized utensils and held in containers that are aseptic.

Things You'll Need

• Sterile disposable gloves
• Thermometer
• Sterile sample containers
• Sterile sample collection utensils
• Ice pack or dry ice
• Insulated container/cooler
• Waterproof labels and marker

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Instructions

• 1

  Thoroughly wash hands with soap, then dry and place disposable gloves on hands. Your hands and gloves should be sterile before touching any of the containers, utensils or food as this ensures there will be no cross contamination.

• 2

  Take the current temperature of the food to be sampled and record it. The temperature is important because it will give laboratory workers insight to any issues regarding improper temperature storage or how they need to store the sample to leave it in the same state as the sample was taken.

• 3

  Use the sterile utensils to take a 100-200-g sample and place it into a sterile container, then affix the lid. Once the sample is in the container either put in a sturdy cooler with ice if it was a refrigerated item or if frozen add dry ice. If the sample is a non-refrigerated item such as dry food it does not have to be placed in a cooler.

• 4

  Stick waterproof labels on all of your samples and mark them properly with a waterproof marker. When labeling the sample you should include the type of food, brand name, who manufactured it, your name, place, date and time of sample collection, name of establishment and type of suspected outbreak.

• 5

  Send samples on for testing at the Department of Health's Bureau of Laboratories for your state. Package well and use expedited shipping to ensure it arrives without being damaged or in an altered state. Include the required form that details your collection of the samples in the package; place it in a plastic bag to keep it from possibly getting wet and becoming illegible.