Listeria & Salmonella Testing Frequency
Do food companies test all their finished products for listeria and salmonella? Currently our facility test all finished products for both, and we would like to lower the amount of testing. Just curious on how other facilities handle testing for these pathogens. We test about 1000-1500 products per year, mostly protein shakes.
Not sure about US regulations RE: frequency of testing and microorganisms. Here in Canada, we test products for Y&M, TC and E. Coli (we're fermented dairy production) Listeria we do only as per customer request, and Salmonella is not done at all.
Do food companies test all their finished products for listeria and salmonella?
Currently our facility test all finished products for both, and we would like to lower the amount of testing.
Just curious on how other facilities handle testing for these pathogens.
We test about 1000-1500 products per year, mostly protein shakes.
I daresay the answer depends on which Regulatory jurisdiction you are working under, ie USFDA or USDA ?
I work for a dry mix manufacturer. I test 1 finished product quarterly, but when I first started the program I tested a lot more, until I had built up a large book of results, enough to demonstrate a trend of safety. I would think one of the issues you're facing is that your product has no kill step, so path testing would seem much more important for you. I know some large scale places with their own internal labs test each batch, but for us that isn't possible currently.
Do food companies test all their finished products for listeria and salmonella?
Currently our facility test all finished products for both, and we would like to lower the amount of testing.
Just curious on how other facilities handle testing for these pathogens.
We test about 1000-1500 products per year, mostly protein shakes.
Is there a step in your process before final products, that eliminates or reduces these microbes?
How much environmental testing do you do? We do weekly environmental testing including zone 1 but then do quarterly product testing.
Also depends on the risk of your product - high or low risk. A high risk product would require more sampling.
Another question: the protein shakes and other products - are they refrigerated or shelf stable.
Based on the amount of risk your product have and your ability to show valid evidence for your decision, you may take your own appropriate frequency of testing.
You might have the idea now analyzing the trend and results from the said tests data.
We test almost all zones every week for salmonella and listeria testing.
The protein products are shelf stable and have a low water activity.
There is no kill step which eliminates microbes for our dry protein powders, however our liquid protein products do have pH and temperature limits.
We are not under USDA just the FDA and are a SQF facility.