Glenda Pereira: 00:08
Welcome to the Maine Farmcast. This is your host, Dr. Glenda Pereira, an assistant professor at the University of Maine and the dairy specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. For today’s episode, we are going to be talking about all things food safety and some seafood as well. So we have a special guest.
Glenda Pereira: 00:28
We have Dr. Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek. I’m really excited to be here with Dr.
Glenda Pereira: 00:38
Gülsün today. And please, would you let the listeners know a little bit about yourself?
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 00:43
Thank you. It’s good to be here. I’m so excited about today’s podcast. Yeah. My full name is—I’m so sorry, this is too long—but Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek. It’s kind of unusual even for Turkish people.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 00:55
Yeah, because both my last names are really long. So I’m an associate extension professor at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, as you mentioned. My background comes from the food science and technology department. I have been teaching, and I have been in academia for all my life after I finished my Ph.D.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 01:14
I have served in different universities as a research, teaching, and extension professor. I worked in two different universities in Turkey, and I was affiliated with several universities as a visiting scholar or teaching professor or research professor at different times. But all my experiences gave me so much insight regarding the food industry—what the food industry needs, what the dimensions of the industry are, which is very, very complicated, and what the future trends are. Especially, food safety is important.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 01:50
No matter where you are working as a food scientist, food safety is a really, really important issue all over the world. It doesn’t matter if you are in a developing country or a well-developed country. Still, we are facing challenges—emerging pathogens and emerging issues. I joined the University of Maine Cooperative Extension exactly one year ago, so I’m so excited about my role and working with the seafood industry, especially. I’m learning a lot from them.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 02:18
And I hope they are learning something from me too. This is what I am doing, basically. My area of expertise is food microbiology and food safety. And also I am one of—
Glenda Pereira: 02:30
—the experts developing novel processing technologies for the food industry. And this job really is all about learning every day. Like you mentioned, you’re learning from the seafood industry here, but I wanted to mention something. We had a discussion about how you developed a technology that could actually help seeds germinate better, which then helped with yield and getting them established.
Glenda Pereira: 02:56
So not only are you a resource for the food community here in the state of Maine, which ties back to all aspects of farming because there’s, you know, the production side.
Glenda Pereira: 03:22
But then there’s, okay, now what do we do with the food and how do we handle it safely so that the consumer or whoever is going to be utilizing this product does it in a safe manner? And so I wanted to talk food safety in general.
Glenda Pereira: 03:22
And why should we put that at the center of everything—everything that we do when we have a product that we’re going to be consuming?
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 03:30
Yeah. Food is essential. You know, we all have to eat something in order to survive. And when you think about it, we have small children, from zero to four years old, and then we have adolescents, mature people, and elderly people. In a whole lifespan, we need different foods in every stage of our lives.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 03:51
But basically, what all of them need is that they have to be nutritious, because we are eating foods to get nutrients to keep our bodies healthy. But at the same time, they have to be safe; otherwise, we will get sick. I’m sure you are reading the news and listening to the news every day—there are so many recalls.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 04:14
There are so many infections and intoxications related to foodborne diseases. So the food that we are consuming or producing should be safe so that we make sure people are eating this food and keeping their health in good condition. Foods are a very good source of proteins, fats, vitamins, and carbohydrates. We love them, and we need these nutrients for our bodies and to keep our health in good shape. So do bacteria and viruses.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 04:49
They also need carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins—all sorts of nutrients. So we are in competition with them, actually. It depends on who is winning the race. In order for us to have healthy foods, we have to eliminate them or prevent them or kill them. There are different strategies to make our food safer for us.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 05:11
First things first, we have to prevent contamination of bacteria or viruses or microorganisms in food, but it’s impossible to do it completely. Think about it. We are harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, and all sorts of products from farmland. If you have contamination sources in the field, you have to find out where this contamination is coming from—whether it’s coming from the soil, the water, or the people working on the farm. And then after that, when you are harvesting, it’s important that you keep the food in the cold chain, which is refrigeration conditions.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 05:48
And then transfer it as soon as possible to the market if you are selling to markets, or to the processing plant. Think about how many different food products we have on the market, right? We have fresh produce, processed produce, frozen, dried—all sorts of things. And then all sorts of formulations and different ways of processing food are to make sure that we have nutritious, healthy, and safe foods. It’s very complicated.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 06:22
And nowadays, bacteria or microorganisms are not the only things that we need to be concerned about. We have chemical contaminants. We have physical contaminants. We have detergents or chemicals that we are using when we are cleaning our processing equipment or processing area, or the tools that we are using. Food industry and food safety cover all of them, from farm to fork, or from the aqua land to the fork.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 06:53
Basically, the job starts from the beginning to the end.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 06:53
Yeah, to make sure that the food produced is safe for everyone, all ages.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 06:53
Yeah, and nutritious also.
Glenda Pereira: 07:05
And I wanted to mention something. So you said bacteria and viruses. And I often talk about this with the farmers that I work with, dairy farmers, because we want a dry and well-ventilated environment.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 07:20
And why is that? It’s because when you have moisture in the environment, bacteria and viruses and fungi—of course also yeast—they like moisture. Like the human body, think about it, we cannot live without moisture. But if the moisture level is higher, you have more microorganisms growing in the environment. So they thrive more.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 07:44
Yeah, of course. Yeah. It’s a very basic motive. All creatures need water for their survival. And microorganisms love water.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 07:54
They can synthesize so many metabolites if there’s enough water. So if you have higher moisture content in the area where you are storing your products, you will start to see in a couple of days mold growing and decay, especially on cucumbers or parsley and other kinds of green vegetables. And then, no matter what, if you have higher moisture content, your product will go bad in a couple of days. And microorganisms grow much faster than human beings.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 08:27
So be careful—each single cell can divide into two on average every twenty minutes. By the end of the day, which is twelve hours, you will have millions of microorganisms, and they are enough to spoil your food in a couple of days. It is important when you are storing your products, especially in the farmland area, to make sure that the storage area is clean and closed so that there won’t be any air contamination. And if you can, it’s suggested to have positive air pressure in the storage area. Make sure it is dry.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 09:07
Dry is important, and it’s not hot, because bacteria like higher temperatures. Most of the pathogenic bacteria—we call them mesophiles—grow at human body temperature, closer to the temperature of the human body. So if the temperature is higher, they grow faster. Make sure that the environment is cold, dry, and free from any contamination sources. Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 09:34
Thank you for explaining that because that’s one thing. So, you know, on the dairy farm, it’s calves.
Glenda Pereira: 09:52
They’re the most susceptible because their immunity is not what mature animal immunity is. And they need a dry, well-ventilated environment.
Glenda Pereira: 09:52
If not, if they’re in a wet condition, the bacteria and viruses in that area just thrive and proliferate, and then they cause—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 10:03
Disease. Especially young animals. They’re very prone to any kind of infection coming from outside sources, and their area should be very clean. And the funny thing about some diseases—animal sources—if the animal has these kinds of diseases when they are alive, when you slaughter this animal, some of these diseases can transfer from the meat to the human. The same is true for milk also.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 10:33
We get some of the bacteria and some of the diseases through the animals; they are transferred to the milk. And then from the milk, it goes to the cheese, and even milk itself, or yogurt or other products. The source is important, but my bottom line is whatever food sample or whatever food we have, the source is important. If you have seafood, it’s important that the seafood you are harvesting or culturing is in clean and safe water. If water is not clean, then sooner or later your animal will be infected or get contaminated. The same is true for agricultural products or livestock too.
Glenda Pereira: 11:11
And does cooking or raising the temperature potentially minimize our risk of illness, but not completely? In some instances, pasteurization for dairy products is a great—
Glenda Pereira: 11:29
Good way—
Glenda Pereira: 11:29
Yeah, sure.
Glenda Pereira: 11:29
—to reduce the bacterial load, because milk in itself is a higher temperature. And so we at the farm try to do as good a job as we can cooling it down. But like you said, bacteria multiply. They go faster than us. They go faster than—
Glenda Pereira: 11:49
But I’m curious.
Glenda Pereira: 11:49
So cooking—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 11:51
—is a way—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 11:51
And can you elaborate more on that? The first thing or first practice they can do that is very important is to have sanitation practices on a regular basis. And if possible, even though it’s a small-scale farm, put it in written form. Do it regularly. We call it SSOP—standard sanitary operational procedures.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 12:16
In terms of milking, let’s give an example. When you are milking animals, the milk is really, really warm. The temperature is really high. It’s important that you cool down this milk as soon as possible and keep it in cool conditions. And then if you are converting it into cheese or yogurt, or if you are going to drink it as milk, make sure that you are pasteurizing it. Temperature and time are very important.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 12:46
You have to boil it enough to kill the bacteria or other infectious agents so that they don’t grow. Then you can convert it to cheese or yogurt or whatever product you would like to, but cooling down is very important and essential. You have to cool it down as soon as possible and as quickly as possible. Because the temperature is high, if your cooling system is not good enough, and if it takes time to cool down—if it takes a couple of hours to cool it down to four degrees or something like that—then the bacteria will grow again. And then you may say, okay, I cooled down this thing, but it’s already spoiled.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 13:24
So it’s important to have the best practices in your production area. Cooking is the best thing firsthand. With every kind of food product—well, not every kind, but most food products—we are cooking to make it edible for us, right? Cooking also has another purpose. If you cook at a high temperature, you are also killing bacteria again.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 13:48
This is important for meat products, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, and seafood. But overall, if the food is produced as it is supposed to be and kept as it is supposed to be, usually they are safe. But don’t we get outbreaks? Of course we do, because there are pitfalls here and there. You cannot predict everything.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 14:09
Thanks to the United States Department of Agriculture, they started a very good program. Actually, this program started for the astronauts who go to space. NASA started the program with a Pittsburgh company. The basic idea was: how can we produce safer food for the astronauts when they are in space for a long time? After they started this program, it was really successful. And then they said, why don’t we apply this program to the food industry?
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 14:41
And make sure that the food we are producing for anyone is safer. This program is now mandatory for the food industry. We call it HACCP—Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points. This hazard analysis critical control points is basically a very complex but easy-to-apply approach. It’s a systematic and preventive system.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 15:04
Basically, this program aims to prevent biological, chemical, and physical contaminants in the food industry from start to end. Most of the food industry should apply these HACCP principles and programs. It is mandatory by USDA and FDA, because some foods are regulated by FDA, some foods are regulated by USDA. And now they would like to make sure that from farm to fork, we have whole traceability.
Glenda Pereira: 15:40
And you teach the HACCP program, and I think you have an upcoming—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 15:44
—one for poultry? We are planning to teach meat and poultry HACCP and seafood HACCP in November.
Glenda Pereira: 15:52
November, yeah.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 15:54
We would like people to be able to join. It’s a two-and-a-half-day training program. This will be a collaborative effort with Cooperative Extension and the Department of Agriculture. Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 16:06
So, for folks listening, look for that program. It’s the HACCP—
Glenda Pereira: 16:14
—meat and—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 16:14
—The HACCP, yeah.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 16:14
Seafood HACCP. And the other thing, before I forget, I would like to mention that sanitation is important. As a University of Maine Cooperative Extension, we are in the process of launching a food process sanitation online course.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 16:29
This is actually a three-level micro-credential.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 16:32
The first level being online, the second level will be in person, and the third level will be practical training. This sanitation course is useful for everyone—not only for the seafood industry, dairy industry, meat and poultry, and even the small home-scale producers. So, we are going to talk about what is essential for sanitation and what the requirements are from Health and Human Services in terms of inspection and other paperwork—what they are obligated to do.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 17:03
We are teaching GMPs, which are good manufacturing practices. And we are also going to talk about SSOPs, which are standard sanitary operational procedures—how they can write them and why they are important. It’s also to understand how they can apply the sanitation rules to their processing area or their farm. They can do it also.
Glenda Pereira: 17:32
Yeah. And so when we’re talking about sanitation, we did a project where we evaluated the sanitation for our calves specifically, because sometimes if we’re not using hot enough water or cold enough water—because depending on the application to break down proteins and fat cells, for example—
Glenda Pereira: 18:26
You need an acid that’s able to disrupt that cell wall. And like you were saying, to clean it, because if not, the fat can build up and then you just have organic matter throughout the entire system. But, you know, like Gülsün had mentioned, monitoring temperature and pH can also help you assess whether your detergents or your sanitation protocol are actually working as effectively—
Glenda Pereira: 18:26
—as they—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 18:27
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 18:28
—and you can use—so I actually have an ATP meter, which just measures—
Glenda Pereira: 18:49
—organic matter. And it’s the reflection of light through the organic matter. So if we have a plastic surface and it’s got a nice layer of organic matter on it, it’s going to let less light through it.
Glenda Pereira: 18:49
And that’s what that ATP meter is measuring. But then pH is really important—
Glenda Pereira: 18:59
—especially in Maine, because we have hard water.
Glenda Pereira: 18:59
Yes.
Glenda Pereira: 18:59
Mineral water.
Glenda Pereira: 18:59
So it alters, yeah.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 19:01
And then it mixes with your—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 19:01
Yep.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 19:01
With your detergent.
Glenda Pereira: 19:04
Yeah. It’ll actually prevent it from being able—
Glenda Pereira: 19:04
—to work effectively. And so that’s where this pH measure can potentially come in—
Glenda Pereira: 19:16
—and help you assess.
Glenda Pereira: 19:16
The acid is from, you know, one to six. And then if it’s a basic solution—
Glenda Pereira: 19:16
Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 19:16
It’s from seven to twelve. That’s why temperature and pH are important.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 19:28
Especially in the food industry—especially the milk and meat industry—you should be really careful about how you sanitize your processing area or equipment, because milk is one of the hardest industries to clean up. Milk is very complicated. It has so many minerals; pH is important. It has fat and carbohydrates. When you clean up, you can sanitize and get rid of the bacteria, but we also have what we call milkstone and everything because of the calcium deposition. It’s important that the detergent you are using effectively cleans the surface area, that you are cleaning all the fats and proteins that stick on the surfaces.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 20:12
pH and the temperature of the water are very important. Sometimes you have to use alkaline detergent. Sometimes you have to use acid detergent. There are so many options in the industry that specialize in milk areas or milking areas.
Glenda Pereira: 20:27
And there are really good protocols too.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 20:29
SSOPs, as I talked about—SSOPs—also, cleaning is an integral part of the GMPs and SSOPs. So please make sure that even though it’s a daily routine, even though it looks very easy, just have written instructions for your cleaning procedure. For example, if you are using alkaline detergent or acid detergent or quaternary ammonium compounds, make sure how much detergent you have to mix with water and what the water temperature should be. The ratio is important.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 21:01
Water temperature is important. How long you have to apply it to the surfaces? These are small details, but in the end, it all makes sense. You have to apply very precise written instructions on how you clean your surface area.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 21:26
Temperatures and contact times are all important.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 21:26
And it’s also important that you are using stainless steel surfaces. In the past—
Glenda Pereira: 21:31
Like—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 21:31
Right.
Glenda Pereira: 21:31
Stainless steel allows us to have the least growth. So plastic and silicone is a great—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 21:40
—way. Because if you are dealing with milk—if you’re producing cheese and yogurt and everything—people know how hard it is to clean milking equipment. The fat, proteins, and carbohydrates all tend to stick on the surfaces. You may kill the bacteria, but you may not be able to remove this sticky organic matter from the surface. If you don’t clean up properly, then it will start building up. Once the first layer builds up, bacteria will go and hide underneath.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 22:16
And then they will produce biofilm, which is a little bit sticky layer. And it’s going to be too hard to remove this layer from the surfaces. So it’s important. That’s the reason why it—
Glenda Pereira: 22:29
—is important—
Glenda Pereira: 22:29
Stainless steel.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 22:31
—to use stainless steel and to make sure that you are following your detergent protocols. Every detergent has very good labels on it. Just read them very carefully, because they give you directions: how much you are going to mix with water, what the water temperature should be—
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 22:50
—what the pH should be. As you mentioned, these ATP measurements are really good. You can measure how much organic matter you have, even though you cleaned the surfaces. The food industry utilizes these kinds of rapid detection or rapid identification methods, like ATP meters, to make sure that the surfaces or areas are clean—even though you think that you cleaned that area. So, at the end, it comes to—
Glenda Pereira: 23:16
—food safety. Yeah. So thank you so much, Gülsün. This was such a fun conversation. I’m learning from you.
Glenda Pereira: 23:23
We’d love to have you back to talk more about your other programs because we scratched the surface on some of the work that you’re doing. I’m going to leave in the show notes your email so folks can contact you and follow up with you if they’d like. And then look forward to Gülsün’s programs as she offers them throughout the year. And with that, thank you so much, Gülsün.
Glenda Pereira: 23:45
Yes. Yeah.
Gülsün Akdemir Evrendilek: 23:46
Thank you. It was very fun. Yeah.
Glenda Pereira: 23:48
Thank you for having me. Yeah. Awesome. So for our listeners, if you have future topic suggestions, comments, or questions, please email us at extension.farmcast@maine.edu.