Hello, we introduced a new line to our factory that processes ready to eat edible cookie dough. We send all of our dough samples out to be tested for APC, Colifom and listeria. Since introducing the new processing line our APC counts have come out higher and out of an abundance of caution we have thrown away several pallets.. I have done in-house surface testing for APC and all of our equipment has tested under 10cfu/g. All of our daily ATP counts are coming in under spec when I send the dough out some of my APC results are at 38,000cfu/g, but everything else is negative. When I ask for a retest sometimes the results on the same samples come in at <10 cfu/g. I have even tested the entire line after the equipment has sat over the weekend and its still testing clean. I have kept everything in place from the previous QA manager until I run into problems like this and have to reassess our practices. What is going on? Am I testing for the correct things? Should I be using APC to determine safety of the product? If anyone can give me guidance I would appreciate it. I have a biology background, but I am driving this ship by myself in the quality department and need industry advice. Thank you so much