My company does mixing and blending of dry ingredients and raw materials such as preservatives, thickening agents, and sweeteners. We are preparing for BRC and I am having trouble finding what parameters/pathogens/microbes we should be swabbing and sampling for in our equipment and utensil sanitation procedure validation. I am not aware of any prescriptive standard for testing parameters, as I understand testing should be risk based for specific pathogens or parameters unique to the company's processes/products. The raw materials themselves that we mix are not prone to spontaneous growth of any pathogens, they are held at ambient temperature. I guess the only microbiological risks I can identify associated with the processing stage are those possibly introduced by personnel. I am getting an ATP meter in to help us with verification, and I understand I need to establish an RLU limit for what is clean or not clean. I intend to do this with the help of a third party lab but at this point am totally unclear what parameters / pathogens I need the lab to test for.
I would appreciate if someone could elaborate on what pathogens/parameters I should be testing for when I validate equipment & utensil sanitation procedures.