Need help-we have bacterial count from pasteurized fruit juice
Can you give more information, what type of juice- is it pH ,4.6, is it shelf stable?
You cannot neglect the possibility that the juice could be contaminated post process too. Is there a leak in the container?
It would depend on your product, but I would generally expect no detected organisms in TPC in a pasteurized product as well..but it depends on shelf life, sporulation times, and whether you tested immediately after pasturization, days after you will generally have growth again from sporulating organisms.
Remind them that milk spoils even in a sealed container, and it's pasteurized just as or more effectively than your juice. But your actual micro limits are going to vary depending on your product and you have to define your own limits.
More concerning is your supervisor's opinion that you should "retest because pasteurized fruit juice should be <1."
That indicates that they don't see the test result as "pasteurization may have not worked correctly and we need to investigate" to "you got the wrong test result, retest until it's correct". That language/opinion is dangerous and you need to make sure they don't treat inconvenient micro results as a "retest until good" instead of asking why.
I am suspecting the CIP process because the count was found on the first three batches then no counts were observed from succeeding batches. Also, we were on "no production" status for a month and we before we begin the process, we conducted CIP once. So, I consider that a CIP is not enough we should conducted the CIP a week before or days before and a day before the actual production (twice).
It would depend on your product, but I would generally expect no detected organisms in TPC in a pasteurized product as well..but it depends on shelf life, sporulation times, and whether you tested immediately after pasturization, days after you will generally have growth again from sporulating organisms.
Remind them that milk spoils even in a sealed container, and it's pasteurized just as or more effectively than your juice. But your actual micro limits are going to vary depending on your product and you have to define your own limits.
More concerning is your supervisor's opinion that you should "retest because pasteurized fruit juice should be <1."
That indicates that they don't see the test result as "pasteurization may have not worked correctly and we need to investigate" to "you got the wrong test result, retest until it's correct". That language/opinion is dangerous and you need to make sure they don't treat inconvenient micro results as a "retest until good" instead of asking why.
Sounds more like a process for sterilization rather than pasteurisation.