Patent ID: 8216510

Claim:
A method for reducing contamination by an undesirable micro-organism within a food processing facility that processes a food product, comprising: receiving a pre-cooked food product into the facility and holding the product in a designated semi-secure storage area of the food processing facility; transporting selected portions of food product from the designated semi-secure storage area to an at least semi-secure treatment area and applying a post-reception lethality treatment directly to the food product; transporting the treated portions of food product from the treatment area to a secure food product delivery area; transporting the treated portions of the food product from the delivery area into selected ones of a plurality of secure area food processing rooms through positive pressure gradient openings therein, each food processing room comprising a single food processing line of series-associated food processing elements comprising at least one food processing device and at least one food packaging device, each food processing room maintained at a first substantially sterile level of cleanliness which substantially prevents the presence and growth of pathogenic microorganisms including Listeria , said food processing rooms each being individually atmospherically and structurally isolated from each other to effectively prevent any contamination in any one such food processing room or series-associated food processing elements therein from contaminating food products processed in any other of such plurality of food processing rooms and series-associated food processing elements therein, whereby each such single-line food processing room effectively comprises a separate food processing facility; processing the food product portions in those selected isolated food processing rooms; packaging the processed food product into closed packages in those selected isolated food processing rooms such that any micro-organisms outside of the packages will be unable to migrate into the interior of the packages as long as the packages remain closed; and transporting the closed packages out of those selected food processing rooms to a semi-secure packaged food receiving area through negative pressure gradient openings.