Looking for reference for microbiological parameter and specification
Hi, i am junior QA in food industry,hopefully everyone in this group stay safe.
I would like to ask about yeast and mould count for raw material. Previously we refer to our Food Safety Regulation where we stated the specification is <5.0 x 10^2 cfu/g (value suggested by food safety consultant). But the HACCP auditor said that the value was to high.
So we lower the value to <1.02 x 10^2 cfu/g based on British Pharmacopoeia 2013. So is that the value is acceptable?
While for Bacillus cereus, we state the specification <1.03 x 10^2cfu/g, is it acceptable ?
Can you help me with reference for microbiological parameter and specification.
Thank you.
What is the raw material?
What risk does yeast and mould pose to your product/process?
Generally it wouldn't be a food safety consideration (unless it's e.g. mould where mycotoxin production could be a concern) so it's an unusual one to need to consider as part of HACCP.
Some more detail as to exactly what you're looking at may help provide more specific answers, but for many food applications you'll probably not find set limits for this.
P.S. The values you've set of 1.03x102 and 1.02x102 also strike me as unusually specific. Can you really reliably differentiate between e.g. 1029 cfu/g and 1031 cfu/g yeast?!