Hot fill and hold Micro Requirements

Good Morning all you microbiologists out there.

I have a hot fill-and-hold beverage with a pH of 3.9.

Primary ingredients 60% water, 40% oil and less than 3% of dairy and other trace.

Recommended micro to test for?

How high is your cook temperature. This will make a difference. I attached an article about thermal processing for foods with a pH of 4.1 to 4.6. This might help. 

How high is your cook temperature. This will make a difference. I attached an article about thermal processing for foods with a pH of 4.1 to 4.6. This might help. 

Hi kfromNE,

Not my area but there seem to be a variety of hot-fill processes for pasteurization.

Typical Beverages (is it?)  seem to run at ca 90degC area but based on precisely what maths is elusive, eg -

Hot-Fill-Processing-of-beverages.pdf   1.58MB   22 downloads

As to the micro question, presumably APC plates should incubate clean for starters.??

PS - as per composition of OP, dairy would seem to be <<<<3%

@ scaime - what is the reason for yr query ?