Sterility Test of compressed air and gases for food and food contact

Hi There,

I am preparing for an audit and am required to test gases and compressed air for sterility. I have sampled and sent off for testing of Yeast & mould and SPC.

Do they have to come back as < 1 cfu/plate to be considered sterile?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

The simple answer is: yes. Since you are talking about sterility you should have no evidence of microbial growth.

Here are a post with more information on compressed air quality: http://www.ifsqn.com...-air-system-r59

Thank you so much for your help.

Much appreciated.

The simple answer is: yes. Since you are talking about sterility you should have no evidence of microbial growth.

Here are a post with more information on compressed air quality: http://www.ifsqn.com...-air-system-r59

Hi Miguel,

I'm not familiar with FSMA's viewpoints on compressed air, or an expert on air quality, but I was under the impression that the designation of various CCPs has currently been replaced by a more PRP-oriented approach, eg file sh5 in this post -

http://www.ifsqn.com...ent/#entry81054

"Sterility" should probably be referenced to a particular evaluation technique, usually an ISO standard in this context.

Charles, you are right. This is another case of terms and definitions. I'm a biologist and I always think like one, but in terms of food safety, sterility could means different depending on what regulation or certification system we are talking about.

And regarding FSMA, the point for FDA is what is the risk involved in using pressured air and how is minimized. There is no specification on microbial counts at all nor definition of clean air in terms of microbiology.

Hi,

can sterility be checked on plates? It is a question of statistics. but <1 cfu/plate is not sterile. I think for compress air plates can be used if you are using filters for collecting germs in x cbm per time.

Rgds

moskito