Hi everyone,
Please could you help? A client of mine supplies swinging pork carcasses to Massmart in South Africa. My client tests for TPC (Total Plate Count) and his parameters are found in CX/NEA 03/16 December 2002 <10, 000, 000 cfu/g . They also test for the presence of pathogens E.coli O157, Staph. aureus and Salmonella as the TPC is an indicator organism. However, Massmart tested a carcass that was recently sent to them and it came back with a TPC test result of >3, 000, 000 cfu/g but no pathogens present. The result was well within the maximum amounts of my client's specifications but Massmart says their specifications are <300,000 cfu/g and we should therefore be in line with those parameters instead.
Does anyone have some advice so that we can reply to the query?
Sorry for the off topic reply but it concerns me that you're only testing for EColi O157 as there are other pathogenic EColi strains. This may be why they are also asking for a lower TPC but that's a rather crude control. Have you asked them why they've set the limits at that level? Might sound daft but when questioned sometimes people realise there is no scientific basis for it. Once had a product rejected for being one log out on yeasts. Eventually after trying 4 different people I got to talk to their company microbiologist, explained the process and the product, explained it contained potassium sorbate, explained we'd had no spoilage complaints and eventually he agreed with me that there was no risk and let it go... 
