Microbiological Testing of Process Water
Hello,
We use water flumes to transport product throughout our facilities, in our post-blanch systems we utilize PAA to control the Microbiological levels of this water. Our water systems temperatures are at 50°F or lower, are recirculated, and are filtered (actually technically strained).
My question is what method is most acceptable for performing microbiological analysis of water quality in process water?
We are currently using Letheen Broth to neutralize sanitizer in the sample and then plate this on 3M Petrifilm.
I can find a lot of information on water testing for bottled water by using filtration techniques, but I am unsure if this is necessary for our process, we do not have bottled water level water that circulate in these systems.
If anyone can point me to scientific articles that deal with process water testing I would appreciate it. At this point I have exhausted all of my leads.
this white paper may help
https://www.unitedfr...White-Paper.pdf
I'm not sure testing the water makes sense in your application............when using PAA there are known ppm that should be sufficient for your process water....so perhaps it makes more sense to check the amount of PAA in the flume water?????
Hello,
We use water flumes to transport product throughout our facilities, in our post-blanch systems we utilize PAA to control the Microbiological levels of this water. Our water systems temperatures are at 50°F or lower, are recirculated, and are filtered (actually technically strained).
My question is what method is most acceptable for performing microbiological analysis of water quality in process water?
We are currently using Letheen Broth to neutralize sanitizer in the sample and then plate this on 3M Petrifilm.
I can find a lot of information on water testing for bottled water by using filtration techniques, but I am unsure if this is necessary for our process, we do not have bottled water level water that circulate in these systems.
If anyone can point me to scientific articles that deal with process water testing I would appreciate it. At this point I have exhausted all of my leads.
Hi weisjp,
Not sure what the exact process is so the following is possibly a (over)simplification.
IMO the initial requirement is, at least in theory, simple. You need to do a risk assessment on the "process steps" to determine any potential CCP and then implement a validated control measure accordingly.
Assuming the input is fresh Produce (??) and the output is RTE (??) the control function of the water/PAA can be regarded as (adequately) preventing cross-contamination of relevant produce pathogens, esp. any non-zero tolerant ones like Salmonella/pathogenic E.coli., L.mono(??)
So, as a corollary to previous post, the safety validation of the Critical limit of PAA ppm is usually to analyse the produce to confirm non-detection of the determined pathogens. The water could also be analysed but if the condition was chlorine controlled, any significant ppm level will usually give a null result (I hv no experience with PAA),
Such processes have been quite well studied in the Literature and discussed in many previous threads here together with associated haccp plans.
If the process is significantly different to the above, so will the conclusions possibly be also. :smile: