Mold, yeast formation on plastic closures

Dear all,

We are producing plastic closures for mineral water purpose. one of the customer said that he sent the sameples to lab and found mold/yeast formation on our caps. hence he is mentioning that our caps are heavily contaminated.

hence kindly give some feedback on the same.

we producing air conditioning room only hence swetting, moisture is not present in area or product.
products are handling with gloves.
Immediately packed after out from machine.
But when we sent samples to custoemrs, it is normal method. Not taking any precautions since we do not know about these samples sent to Microbiological testing.
pls need some input hence i could take care the process and product as well.

thanks and regards
k.masan

Dear all,

We are producing plastic closures for mineral water purpose. one of the customer said that he sent the sameples to lab and found mold/yeast formation on our caps. hence he is mentioning that our caps are heavily contaminated.

hence kindly give some feedback on the same.

we producing air conditioning room only hence swetting, moisture is not present in area or product.
products are handling with gloves.
Immediately packed after out from machine.
But when we sent samples to custoemrs, it is normal method. Not taking any precautions since we do not know about these samples sent to Microbiological testing.
pls need some input hence i could take care the process and product as well.

thanks and regards
k.masan

Dear K.Masan,

Microbiology issues may be there, initially you have to check that which type of microorganisms are coming i.e mold, yeast or bacteria etc. Then we can guess that either they are coming from environment or human handling or it may be other source.

Faisal Rafique

The temperature during the moulding process will destroy any mould and yeast spores or cells, so that source can be eliminated straight away.

The first area that I would explore is whether the cause is you or your customer. Not easy, but I would certainly send your own samples to a lab for testing. Negative results may not prove that it was not your fault, but it will help your argument. Air sampling and equipment swabbing may also be useful.

Is it just one cusomer? A visit to the customer to see how they store and use your closures may identify a bad practice. Some bottlers concentrate on the food/drink and bottle and forget the closure's GMP.

Other areas to look at:

Mould is most commonly attributed to a moisture problem somewhere. You mentioned air conditioning. Is there a reservoir of mould within the air conditioning units themselves.

What was the condition of the cases when your customer took their samples if they were wet or damaged then this is probably the cause.

What is the packaging format that you supply the closures in. Is it a polybag in a cardboard case? If it is a polybag, is it a manual system or do you blow air in the bag to inflate the bag. If so check the air filters, they can hold spores and you then increase th problem by blowing spores into the bag.

If it is a woven bulk bag, how do you clean/wash/dry these bags?

Do the closures have a cardboard or similar insert? if there is dampness in this raw material, mould may develop.

I tend to agree and would push this back not only to the customer and their handling procedures but also contamination by the test house itself. Apart from the growth on hot, dry, freshly moulded caps being diffiult to understand, it is also hard to see what sort of nutrients the alleged mould and yeast are metabolising.