Microbiology what levels are too high in seeds used in bakery?
Hello all,
I work in a seed packing and sorting plant. the seeds are intended for the bakery industry, so like sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds etc.
Currently I am busy with renewing all our specification and I noticed that our microbiological limits are all over the place.
I want to standardize the limits but because there are no legal limits and the products need to be heated, I find it hard to find good limits.
Here is an example of the micro limits for sesame seeds:
- Aerobic Plate Count: 1.000.000 cfu/g
- Entrobacteriaceae: 100.000 cfu/g
- E.Colli: 100 cfu/g
- Moulds: 5.000 cfu/g
- Yeasts: 5.000 cfu/g
- Salmonella: absent in 25 gr
- Staphylococcus aureus: 10 cfu/g
- Bacillus cereus: 1.000 cfu/g
- Coliforms: 10.000 cfu/g
At what levels would something become harmful for our customer.
Is there some standard that, for example, E-coli 1000 cfu/g increases the change of illness significantly?
Hello all,
I work in a seed packing and sorting plant. the seeds are intended for the bakery industry, so like sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds etc.
Currently I am busy with renewing all our specification and I noticed that our microbiological limits are all over the place.
I want to standardize the limits but because there are no legal limits and the products need to be heated, I find it hard to find good limits.
Here is an example of the micro limits for sesame seeds:
- Aerobic Plate Count: 1.000.000 cfu/g - Not directly safety related.
- Entrobacteriaceae: 100.000 cfu/g - Not directly safety related.
- E.Coli: 100 cfu/g - Not usually regarded as safety related. unless a pathogenic species is specified, (eg E.coli O157)
- (1) Moulds: 5.000 cfu/g - Might be indirectly safety Related, eg via mycotoxins. Legal limits for mycotoxins depend on location**. Similarly limits for mould itself.
- Yeasts: 5.000 cfu/g - Not usually safety related afaik.
- (2) Salmonella: absent in 25 gr - safety Related. Legal limit is usually zero.
- (3) Staphylococcus aureus: 10 cfu/g - indirectly safety related (via toxin). High Risk* if S.aureus COP > 10^4 cfu/gram
- (4) Bacillus cereus: 1.000 cfu/g - indirectly safety related (via toxin). High Risk* if B.cereus > 10^4 cfu/gram
- Coliforms: 10.000 cfu/g - Not directly safety related.
At what levels would something become harmful for our customer.
Is there some standard that, for example, E-coli 1000 cfu/g increases the change of illness significantly?
Hi Dongilles,
I presume the spec. is before any heating.
approx. half of spec. is related to safety IMO.
* taken from UK/HPA micro.guidelines for RTE foods
** eg see -
http://www.ifst.org/...ents/mycotoxins
These random sesame links may also be of some interest (many more on the Net)-