Yeast and Mould Testing and Limit Requirements

Hello all, I work for small Ready-to-Drink beverage co-packer. We make both alcoholic and non-alcoholic RTD beverages in 355 mL cans. I'm new at this facility and have been reviewing their micro testing limits and I have a question around the Yeast and Mould limits. Currently they are set at <10 CFU internally for finished goods. However, some of our customers have provided their own product specification sheets with limits of <1000 CFU. Can anyone advise on what resources I can reference for limits?

 

I've looked at FDA guidelines, Health Canada, Ontario Public Health and Alberta Health Services and am not able to come up with any thing helpful. 

 

Thanks in advance.

Hi! I would assume your limits are set so low because these could cause spoilage in your finished product.
You should expect to be able to meet this.
I doubt you will anything in the regulatory framework as these are quality indicators as opposed to posing a health risk.
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Thank you for your reply. These limits were set by consultants as a way to esnure product quality without actually understanding the products. We have consistently been able to meet these parameters without any issues. I am now looking to expand this to be more in-line with our biggest customer at the request of the powers that be at my facility. 

 

How would we go about raising the limit beyond <10 CFU? Testing/Validation/etc.?

 

Prior to this facility I was the QA Manager at a cannabis facility and we used very specific pharmacopeia references for setting limits in conjunction with guidance from Health Canada. This is a bit of a new territory for me. 

Hello all, I work for small Ready-to-Drink beverage co-packer. We make both alcoholic and non-alcoholic RTD beverages in 355 mL cans. I'm new at this facility and have been reviewing their micro testing limits and I have a question around the Yeast and Mould limits. Currently they are set at <10 CFU internally for finished goods. However, some of our customers have provided their own product specification sheets with limits of <1000 CFU. Can anyone advise on what resources I can reference for limits?

 

I've looked at FDA guidelines, Health Canada, Ontario Public Health and Alberta Health Services and am not able to come up with any thing helpful. 

 

Thanks in advance.

Hi Izabella,

 

Not my area but IIRC there are some previous discussions / threads here on micro Y&M for retail soft drinks, etc.

Offhand, I think yr internal spec (presumably per gram/ml) is typical whereas <1000 was simply "out of the ball-park" unless some specific, atypical, product involved (??).

Why raise it? Sounds perfectly fine to me that your limits are set low.
You will end up with spoilage if you have yeast.
Sounds like your consultants did understand your product.
I am always against raising limits. Especially if you can consistently meet them? Who cares what limit your customer sets?
Do you think it's a good idea to sell a juice or other such product with yeast? Nope, you will get a fizzy mess on the shelf.
Keep your limits.
Otherwise you can write in your system where you have 'target levels' and 'upper limit'. That could possibly work. But to me it is a slippery slope. Your product should be able to comply to <10 ....