Microbiological Standard for Swabbing

Hand swab- Coliform

Equipment Swab- Total Plate Count

Air- TPC/ Yeast and Mould Count..

Thanks..

Dear cory,

This post may help for first two -

http://www.ifsqn.com...ces/#entry60958

Y&M are reviewed in various places, try searching a little.

Rgds / Charles.C

PS - often, people use same (average) ideas for APC / coliform for both hands / equipment although both are subjective.

This is the result of our micro swabbing. Can you help me  to interpret the data.

FOR EQUIPMENT ( TOTAL PLATE COUNT)

EQ #1=      7,800 CFU/ item

EQ #2=      11,00CFU/ item

EQ #3=      280,000 CFU / item

EQ #4=      2,200 CFU / item

EQ # 5=     420 CFU / item

EQ# 6=       53,000 CFU / item

FOR PERSONNEL ( COLIFORM)

#1=             <1 CFU / hand

#2=                   3.0 CFU / hand

#3=              95 CFu / hand

FOR AIR MONITORING 

ATP=            51 CFU / 15 min. exposure

YEAST and MOULD= 59 CFU/ 15 min. exposure

Your information will be a great help..

Thanks

Hi Cory,

For Equipment TPC - You need to confirm if those are food contact surfaces and if they are after a clean (Normally I would be looking for < 1,000 and be taking action above this level) or to monitor during production? Also have you compared these results with product micro?

For Hands - any Coliform detected is not acceptable, especially if hands are in contact with food/food contact surfaces or capable of contaminating either or both.

For Air - Y&M would be of slight concern if product is susceptible and I would look to fog and repeat.

Regards,

Tony

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the info..

TPC and Y & M counts shall essentially be lesser than permissible limits in the product specification.

Tolerance limits shall be defined keeping in view the probability of contamination from the individual machine/surface and the cummulative contribution from the process.

TPC and Y & M counts shall essentially be lesser than permissible limits in the product specification.

 

Tolerance limits shall be defined keeping in view the probability of contamination from the individual machine/surface and the cummulative contribution from the process.

For a clean surface at the start of production? Does this consider an increase in contamination due to growth during the production period?

I have not seen a finished product specification with environmental exposure plate limits.

I would want to review a history of environmental results vs. product performance (micro/shelf life/complaints etc.) in establishing acceptable limits, in the absence of those then the guidelines would be as per my previous post.

Regards,

Tony

Dear cory,

Sort of expanding Tony's queries -

Are the APC numbers replicates of the same piece of equipment or different objects ?

If different objects and based on one measurement only, the data may be of limited value.

Also without units for area or measurement  incubation data,  the APC results IMO are difficult / impossible to interpret unless you are referring to a standardised piece / size of equipment / specification / procedure.

If valid data, the equipment identities are obviously of interest, especially 2 items. And the reasons for the large divergences.

i would make sure that the data for hands are genuinely coliforms.

I  suggest you might  consider testing hands for S.aureus  since I presume this is RTE product (?).

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi all, for hand swab, do we have standard for bare hand, hand with glove, working hand and clean hand?

Hi all, for hand swab, do we have standard for bare hand, hand with glove, working hand and clean hand?

Dear khc,

yr queries are rather difficult to answer without some context.

eg comments may relate  to location/product/process/regulatory.

there are no absolute standards for equipment food contact surfaces (fcs) / hands unless regulatory. Very general guideline ranges do exist.

Most, but not all, lit. data corresponds to "just cleaned" scenarios. For semi-obvious reasons.

i suggest to initially try the compilation given in link/post #2 of this thread to appreciate the options. This is primarily for fcs but, from memory, some hand data is included.

Various other "hand swab" discussion threads also exist on this forum for "specialities" like S.aureus

Just as an example, a typical, ie "rule-of-thumb", undefined status/context, value often quoted here for "bare hand" is APC max. 100cfu/cm2

Rgds / Charles.C