Fruit blend drink microbiology standards

I came across recently this microbiology requirement from a drink bottler:
Product: blend of juice concentrates: High acidic <3.5, Brix at least 40

• Total yeast count 30 cfu /ml concentrate
• Total osmophilic yeast count <20cfu /ml concentrate
• Total viable Byssochlamys andPaecilomyces spp of mould absent (Capable of producing pectinolytic enzymes)
• Total viable bacteria absent,

• Can anyone help me on this as it looks unrealistic with TVC=0, Can anyone help me on this strange requirement?
• Your views: where it may have come from?
• Can anyone produce and release product based on this requirements, please?
• Why such unrealistic strict criteria which are not even applicable for pharmaceutical purposes: oral administration (Total viable aerobic count not more than 10³ aerobic bacteria per 1g or 1ml)?

I am looking forward to your replies.

Difficult to know without having the full picture but i suspect that this may be a specification for a heat treated product. Temperatures required to produce this specification particularly for Y&M would be very high but I have seen it in a number fo companies. Perhaps this is where the customer is coming from??


George

This looks like a specification for a high sugar orange juice concentrate or some other variety of fruit juice concentrate

Pectinases or pectinolytic enzymes are used to stabilize many products and in fruit juice they are used to stabilize the cloudiness. Measuring the organisms that are capable of producing these pectinases would make sense.

 

In terms of mold growth, remember that under pH 4.2 all vegetative and spore forming micro-organisms are destroyed. This would make sense considering the pH is 3.5 (far more acidic than 4.2).

 

Another reason this points me towards orange juice is that osmophilic yeasts produce spoilage in orange juice. 

Yeast is huge in fruit drink industry so again all of this points to fruit and I would be confident it is probably orange juice spec.

In terms of mold growth, remember that under pH 4.2 all vegetative and spore forming micro-organisms are destroyed. This would make sense considering the pH is 3.5 (far more acidic than 4.2).

 

 

Wow, omg no they are not. They're slower to grow if your product shelf life is 2 months. But those pH levels are not LETHAL, they just prevent growth of most pathogens (however Salmonella will grow all the way down to 3.7).

 

As someone who had to do a lot of formulation for preservative-controlled beverages, I have to tell you that molds and yeasts are hardy buggers and don't care about your pH until it's below 3.3, and even then it isn't lethal, it just prevents growth.

 

https://s3.amazonaws...cold-filled.pdf

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm...cles/PMC123824/

 

Now if you have low pH specifically because you're using acetic acid, then that's a different story, but pH alone does not sterilize in beverages.

 

 

@OP: Your spec does look like a heat-treated, high brix, and acidified product where the TVC would be expected to be zero while the mold/yeast may have small counts.

Wow, omg no they are not. They're slower to grow if your product shelf life is 2 months. But those pH levels are not LETHAL, they just prevent growth of most pathogens (however Salmonella will grow all the way down to 3.7).

 

As someone who had to do a lot of formulation for preservative-controlled beverages, I have to tell you that molds and yeasts are hardy buggers and don't care about your pH until it's below 3.3, and even then it isn't lethal, it just prevents growth.

 

https://s3.amazonaws...cold-filled.pdf

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm...cles/PMC123824/

 

Now if you have low pH specifically because you're using acetic acid, then that's a different story, but pH alone does not sterilize in beverages.

 

 

@OP: Your spec does look like a heat-treated, high brix, and acidified product where the TVC would be expected to be zero while the mold/yeast may have small counts.

 

Hi, 

 

Take a look at this attachment and let me know your thoughts on what it is saying.

 

Regards,

 

Jon

Thoughts:

 

1. This document is written for vegetative or spore forming pathogens, not yeast and mold.

 

2. The document agrees with me and indicates that pH is used to control for growth, not to kill the pathogens. Pathogens are only eliminated using heat, they can be kept from growing using pH and Aw controls. Heat and pH combined are more effective at killing pathogens but simply exposure to an environment with a pH of 4.2 does not kill them, it means you wouldn't need to refrigerate to keep them from growing. Quote: "When dealing with a food that has not been heat-treated or that has been heat-treated but not packaged to prevent recontamination, considerations must be made for limiting the growth of both vegetative and spore-forming pathogens...The lowest pH value for Staphyloccus aureus growth is 4.2"

 

 

3. Again, per the studies I listed above as well as a ton of shelf-life studies out there, yeast and mold will grow at almost any pH even in the presence of preservative given enough time unless you're really far down there or using acetic acid which has other antimicrobial properties that are independent of simply the pH.

 

[microorganism] will not grow [below/above] [pH/temperature/water activity] does not mean [microorganism] is destroyed in those conditions.

 

They may slowly go down in numbers but that's assessed on a matrix by matrix basis.

Thoughts:

 

1. This document is written for vegetative or spore forming pathogens, not yeast and mold.

 

2. The document agrees with me and indicates that pH is used to control for growth, not to kill the pathogens. Pathogens are only eliminated using heat, they can be kept from growing using pH and Aw controls. Heat and pH combined are more effective at killing pathogens but simply exposure to an environment with a pH of 4.2 does not kill them, it means you wouldn't need to refrigerate to keep them from growing. Quote: "When dealing with a food that has not been heat-treated or that has been heat-treated but not packaged to prevent recontamination, considerations must be made for limiting the growth of both vegetative and spore-forming pathogens...The lowest pH value for Staphyloccus aureus growth is 4.2"

 

 

3. Again, per the studies I listed above as well as a ton of shelf-life studies out there, yeast and mold will grow at almost any pH even in the presence of preservative given enough time unless you're really far down there or using acetic acid which has other antimicrobial properties that are independent of simply the pH.

 

[microorganism] will not grow [below/above] [pH/temperature/water activity] does not mean [microorganism] is destroyed in those conditions.

 

They may slowly go down in numbers but that's assessed on a matrix by matrix basis.

 

 

I should have clarified my original statement to encompass yeast and mold rather than pathogens such as salmonella spp, etc. Most yeast/molds that grow in acidic environments pose only a quality issue and generally are not safety hazard. At least in fruit juice. I agree that salmonella can show up in fruit juice