Microbiological testing for frozen breads, pasta, vegetables and ready meals

Say there is a BRC accredited "Broker of ambient dried pasta and frozen bread & pizzas, filled & unfilled pasta, vegetables, ready meals, ready meal components and desserts with 3rd party services of import, storage, distribution, further processing and product testing"

What sort of micro hazards do you think they test for? TVC, Bacillus cereus,  Salmonella, E.coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Staph aureus? and why?

Edit: Also, would mould be a concern on the pasta and bread?

Hi nlets,

Provided they are BRC accredited, and the range of products are broad, any/all of the aforementioned microbial testing would be expected. It all would be based on the specific requirements they might have assessed adhering to certain standards and requirements they think they should consider (Why? could be based on their hazard analysis as part of their HACCP program)

Without getting more context, these are all general assumptions. It's all based on their various process-product characteristics. 

Afaik, Mould is a larger concern on bread. Pasta when properly dried, usually not found to have mould growth. Largely depends on operational level water activity control.

I am unsure if a broker would conduct any testing or if they could just pass on testing from their supplier. You can always ask the question and see what the broker says.

Thank you both for responding. To add more contect; I have an interview with the Broker in a few days, and I was trying to anticipate them asking me, "what sort of micros do you think would be of concern or should be on the specs when we trade this product?".

Because the product is frozen, it threw me off a bit, and I was wondering if the same micro hazards if the products were ambient, would still be worth testing for with frozen product.

Say there is a BRC accredited "Broker of ambient dried pasta and frozen bread & pizzas, filled & unfilled pasta, vegetables, ready meals, ready meal components and desserts with 3rd party services of import, storage, distribution, further processing and product testing"

 

What sort of micro hazards do you think they test for? TVC, Bacillus cereus,  Salmonella, E.coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Staph aureus? and why?

 

Edit: Also, would mould be a concern on the pasta and bread?

Hi nlets,

Depending on the precise food components in your mentioned  "menu"  yr list of potential microbial pathogens could be extended..

Might note that -

(1) TVC is not a (HACCP) hazard.

(2)  "E.coli" is ambiguous since to 2 types exist - (Hazardous) Pathogenic E.coli species (eg E.coli O157:H7 et al ) and (Non-Hazardous) Generic (Hygiene indicator) E.coli. The former species  is particularly relevant if any items in your list contain meat-based components.