How to control salmonella in flour and what should be done if it is detected?

Hey, can you please send regulations regarding Salmonella? How salmonella is controlled in flour and what should be done if it is detected in flour? Br, Aija.

Hello,

About the regulation, I think it will be different for each country, so it is important to determine the country of sale of your products.

Salmonella is a microbial concern in flour because of its cleaning methodology (i.e., dry cleaning). To control it, you must establish the cleaning procedures (i.e., whether to use dry cleaning or controlled wet cleaning), and must consider the design and layout of your processing areas. It is very important that product residues are removed on a timely manner. You can refer to the CODE OF HYGIENIC PRACTICE FOR LOW-MOISTURE FOODS CAC/RCP 75-2015 from CODEX Alimentarius. Likewise, you may also want to check the storage condition of your raw materials.

I hope this helps. Stay safe! :)

Hey, can you please send regulations regarding Salmonella? How salmonella is controlled in flour and what should be done if it is detected in flour? Br, Aija.

Hi Aija,

It's a well-known problem.

How is yr flour processed ?

Salmonella is, afaik, Globally a zero tolerant microbial species in Official Food Product Specifications.

eg, sampling/detection = lot rejection.

The attachments below may assist -

reducing microbial contamination wheat flour.PNG   55.31KB   2 downloads

Reducing microbial contamination of wheat flour.pdf   2.63MB   33 downloads

Hello Aija. 

In the US, "heat treated" flour is available by some of the flour suppliers (ex. Cargill) to deal with Salmonella. We used it exclusively in our raw cookie dough retail product (since consumers like to eat raw cookie dough while making cookies). The price has come down substantially over the years and is now similar in price to the non-heat treated version. 

Hi Aija,

do you receive flour with trucks (25 to per lot).
Flour might contain up to 300000 cfu/g. Focus is today more on B. cereus and its spores.

If you want to check for Salmonella at flour level (very low levels if present) you need a sampling system to take samples over the entire lot.

If you would detect Salmonella, consequence would be rejection as Charles already wrote.

In bakery with sufficient core temperature all vegetative cells should be killed.

Rgds

moskito