BRC Food Issue 8 - Environmental Monitoring

Hi all,

Hope all are safe and doing well. I have a doubt regarding the control limits of swab tests for environmental monitoring according to BRC Food Issue 8. Regarding the pathogens as we all know most of the parameters need to be ABSENT where as in the case of parameters such as TPC, Total coliforms etc, there is no specific stipulated standards or reference for the results/control limit. Could someone explain from their experience or current practice, how do you do it with out a reference standard for the same for different surfaces and different production processes? 

Thanks in advance,

Tejusan

Hello Tejusan,

Not sure what product you are doing. However I work in the produce sector, we also never had any limits set so we worked off the RTE limits for produce which is obviously higher limits than we need but we havent had any trouble staying below those limits. I think BRC are expecting you to have some industry guidance or at least set some limits yourself and adjust them as you build historical data.

Below is a link to the UK Microbiological RTE guidelines which may help you come up with some limits to start with.

https://assets.publi..._the_market.pdf

Hi all,

Hope all are safe and doing well. I have a doubt regarding the control limits of swab tests for environmental monitoring according to BRC Food Issue 8. Regarding the pathogens as we all know most of the parameters need to be ABSENT where as in the case of parameters such as TPC, Total coliforms etc, there is no specific stipulated standards or reference for the results/control limit. Could someone explain from their experience or current practice, how do you do it with out a reference standard for the same for different surfaces and different production processes? 

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Tejusan

Hi Tejusan,

See this thread -

https://www.ifsqn.co...ces/#entry60958