Total Plate Count
I have been looking at a COA for Cauliflower powder and I noticed that a couple suppliers have a limit of <300,000 (TPC) for cauliflower powder, is this a normal limit for this product? Thank you.
Seems high , really high, considering how many processing steps this would have to go through prior to final product................
The only reference I could find was http://www.puntofoca...os/ken649_t.pdf where dried veggie powders are listed at
2 x 10 to the 4th or 20,000 cfu
or this
TABLE 4: Microbiological requirements of food products given below: - Sl No Products Parameters Limits 1 Thermally processed fruits and vegetable products a) Total plate count b) Incubation at 37°C for 10 days and 55°C for 7 days a) Not more than 50 / ml b) No changes in pH 2 a) Dehydrated fruits and vegetable products b) Soup powders c) Desiccated coconut powder d) Table olives e) Raisins f) Pistachio nuts g) Dates h) Dry fruits and nuts Total plate count Not more than 40,000 / gm
Is this powder considered ready-to-eat? Does it receive a treatment that would significantly reduce the bacterial load?
the cauliflower powder is used as a baking mix where lethality is reached through baking.
It sounds similar to regular ol' flour, which can have relatively high counts and even pathogens. I'd treat it with the same level of care.
There is a killstep in your process, so there is a step that significantly reduces the bacterial load.
This count may be completely normal. It is raw material, after all!
Time to have a discussion with your supplier and see how they came up with that limit. Try to understand their process.
Even though you have a kill step you can only kill so much bacteria and dead bacteria, while not posing a health hazard, will impact your product shelf-life.
I have been looking at a COA for Cauliflower powder and I noticed that a couple suppliers have a limit of <300,000 (TPC) for cauliflower powder, is this a normal limit for this product? Thank you.
It likely depends on the process, eg -
Cauliflower -6 powder is produced from field fresh raw material which is properly washed, trimmed, air dried, and processed though many various cleaning, sorting, and food safety procedures before producing the specific cut size. A specific product specification can be set up to meet your company or finished product requirements. A steam sterilization step can be added, to offer a low micro and confirmed pathogen kill step.
Based on two random examples, one answer to yr query would seemingly be NO. (Factors of [7.5, 30] x respectively)
CauliflowerPowder Spec.pdf 98.53KB 8 downloads
Cauliflower Powder Specification (2).pdf 170.1KB 7 downloads