Micro Testing for French Fries
Does anyone have preferred testing for frozen par fried French fries? Our in house lab uses 3M Petrifilm plates.
My initial thoughts were APC, coliforms/e. coli and possibly add staph. aureus? Is it common to plate Yeast and molds for potatoes?
Thanks for your feedback!
I work with a frozen fry company. They only test for APC and coliform/EB.
I guess it depends on customer requirements and what information you seek to gain from testing.
I work corporately for a number of fresh cut fruit and vegetable plants, so no frozen french fry experience, but we've been updating a lot of our HA's to reflect the FDA's newly issued recommendation tables. For frozen NRTE vegetables, they've identified e. Coli, Salmonella, and Listeria as potential biological hazards.
I'd recommend YM/EL monitoring at the site level for potential sanitation issues and sending out APC/EB on their actual food products to at least indicate whether further testing would be recommended/needed. Bare minimum though would be AC/EB plates. CC/EC plates too if they've ever had issues with pathogenic forms of E. coli.
What are the limits you are going to use? Before setting up a test, you need to be prepared for the results!!