Bacterial Guidelines for Food Contact Surfaces

Does anyone have a good guideline reference(s) I can use for bacterial counts on food contact surfaces. The food contact surfaces are swabbed and tested for coiliform and e. coli, this is a dry environment for packing of fresh fruits and vegetables. Any suggestions?

Does anyone have a good guideline reference(s) I can use for bacterial counts on food contact surfaces. The food contact surfaces are swabbed and tested for coiliform and e. coli, this is a dry environment for packing of fresh fruits and vegetables. Any suggestions?

Dear MFSC,

Firstly, you may hv specific local regulatory limits which will then control yr options ?

Generally, AFAIK, no recent, quantitative, unifying review on this topic exists in the English language except maybe in the specialist journals. The available information on this forum mainly consists of a compilation of opinions with varying levels of scientific bases. Specific official requirements are also rare IMEX, one (Indian ) example / extract is attached below, and also see the parallel thread to this currently running below this one –
http://www.ifsqn.com...dpost__p__56079

micro.limits food contact surfaces, EIC 2007.png   29.18KB   63 downloads
(IMEX E.coli is more commonly used than coliform, usually with a similar “absence” requirement)

There are numerous other threads here on the general topic of micro.criteria for food contact surfaces, some are sub-linked in above reference, others can readily be found by searching here for “swab”.
(eg http://www.ifsqn.com...dpost__p__48944 )

Rgds / Charles.C