High Enterobacteria and TVC Counts on Minced Beef

Hi,

Could anyone advise me on how to get micro counts down on a minced beef product. The results are coming back too high for TVC's and Enterobacteria.

I have taken handswabs, PPE swabs, verified the dilutions on cleaning chemicals, checked for dead spaces in the mincing machine, verified that temperatures are consist and acceptable in the storage unit.

The supplier is BRC accredited, would it be worth asking them for a certificate of analysis or some sort of lab testing results for the batch in question.

I have quite literally walked the manufacturing process from start to finish and I can't work out where we are going wrong.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!  :biggrin:

The supplier is BRC accredited, would it be worth asking them for a certificate of analysis or some sort of lab testing results for the batch in question.

That is an option.   I would test multiple samples of any remaining product.   

have you done any actual micro testing / swabbing of equipment?

The primal cuts you're receiving will be heavily contaminated to begin with.  Just because they are BRC certified doesn't mean that they are reducing the bacterial load prior to shipping (not familiar with UK or EU laws on primal cuts and allowable levels)

try a PAA dip at food contact levels, you should see a significant reduction in your numbers--your chemical supplier should be able to assist you in getting a small amount to try)

https://digitalcommo...t=animalscidiss

https://www.fsis.usd...0.1_table_2.pdf

and lots more

Hi,

 

Could anyone advise me on how to get micro counts down on a minced beef product. The results are coming back too high for TVC's and Enterobacteria.

 

I have taken handswabs, PPE swabs, verified the dilutions on cleaning chemicals, checked for dead spaces in the mincing machine, verified that temperatures are consist and acceptable in the storage unit.

 

The supplier is BRC accredited, would it be worth asking them for a certificate of analysis or some sort of lab testing results for the batch in question.

 

I have quite literally walked the manufacturing process from start to finish and I can't work out where we are going wrong.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!  :biggrin:

Can you provide some numbers to clarify what you mean by "high" ?

Is their any UK official micro. limits associated with this, I presume "raw" product. Seems not unsurprising that minced product will contain substantial amounts of bacteria.

https://www.food.gov...al-load-on-beef

Scotland

https://www.foodstan..._Chapter_13.pdf

https://www.legislat.../1995/3205/made

For the purposes of this table “meat of any permitted species” means the meat referred to in regulation 7(1) or (2), as the case may be.

2.  Microbiological criteria:

 

https://www.food.gov...al-load-on-beef

 

Scotland

https://www.foodstan..._Chapter_13.pdf

 

 

https://www.legislat.../1995/3205/made

 

For the purposes of this table “meat of any permitted species” means the meat referred to in regulation 7(1) or (2), as the case may be.

2.  Microbiological criteria:

  Lower Threshold (per g.) Upper Threshold (per g.) Microbic Limit   Solid media Liquid media Solid media Liquid media   Aerobic mesophile bacteria 5 × 10⁵ 5 × 10⁵ 5 × 10⁶ 1.5× 10⁷ 5 × 10⁸ Escherichia coli 50 50 5 × 10² 1.5 × 10³ 5 × 10⁴ Staphylococcus aureus 102 102 5 × 10³ 3 × 10³ 5 × 10⁴

 

Hi Scampi,

Thks for links. I extracted the table for clarity.

UK minced meat.png   57.52KB   0 downloads

Some fairly astronomic mic. limits as would be expected. The OP's data must be really high although seems no mention of Enterobacteriaceae for this product..

APC and E.coli data can exhibit massive variations.

Hi

Have a look at the attached file

This is the chapter on microbiological criteria from MIG (Meat Industry Guidelines)

It might help in discussions with your supplier

regards

Hi

Have a look at the attached file

This is the chapter on microbiological criteria from MIG (Meat Industry Guidelines)

 

It might help in discussions with your supplier

regards

Sorry, no attachmemt.

Note that 2nd link in Post5 is also MIG (Ch13). Same file ?

taking this opportunity to say that this is why you shouldn't eat a burger cooked to less than well done  (unless it's ground and cooked right away on site)