Biscuit discolouration "green mould" FROZEN RTE product

Morning guys,

Customer complaint of "mouldy cheesecakes"

Context -

Frozen RTE Cheesecakes

Biscuit base with syrup & marg (heated +72°)

Cheesecake mix

Raspberries & Drizzle on top

Defrosted life 3 days.

Discolouration located @ customer warehouse after left OUR control, haulier to frozen storage, haulier to customer depot.

Issue-

Visible "discolouration" to biscuit base (green tinge)

Tested :

FP :No Yeasts / Moulds detected 

Raw Materials : No yeasts / Moulds detected

Ideas???

Chemical reaction -

bicab and salt?

Frozen fruits & alcohol in compound?

TEMPERATURE failure by haulier or receiving depot?

At a bit of a loss, anyone got any ideas?

The finished product that was tested, was that the product with the green discoloration or other product?  How much finished product was impacted?  a single cheesecake?

Could have been the air quality on the day of manufacture/packaging.  St. Louis has really high mold spores days.  Or maybe you have an air filter needs to be replaced.  You could do some environmental testing to see what kind of molds you have floating around in your plant.  

HI

FP was tested on DOM and was clear.

Then challenge test of top, centre & bottom of pallet were tested - all negative

Then challenge test of x3 cases with visible "mould" tested - all negative....

Challenge test of just "mouldy" biscuit has been sent today, but is a +5 day rose Bengal test...

I have settle plates from a week before with counts <1... 

I get where your coming from but wouldn't all the cases packed +1000 on x4 SKU's have some sort of "growth"

I was thinking is it maybe mould in cake boards? As out of 176 cases x8 have visible "discolouration"..

Im thinking root cause is temperature abuse once left "out" control, either by stores or depot picking layers ....

For the environmental, I was thinking more of an outside contamination that hitched a ride on an employee.  Like they tucked their hair under their hairnet and didn't re-wash their hand.  

If it came in with biscuit mix, then it would be like a needle in the haystack.  That's the problem with all microbial testing.  A negative doesn't really mean that the organism isn't present, just that it wasn't detected in the sample.  

If it was on packaging, then it's more likely that an employee touched it with a contaminated hand or glove.  But cardboard if it got damp could be a source.  I don't necessarily mean wet, we have all kinds of humidity issues where I am at.  Add a random mold spore... you could sponge/swab the cardboard but that's just a different haystack at this point.  

I think you have done your due diligence at this point.  If it wasn't wide spread throughout an entire batch, it is really hard to pin point a true root cause.  I agree that any visible mold growth is likely the result of temperature abuse, but you probably are not going to identify the source of the mold.  

Good news is that there's a handful of other users that responds to the same threads I respond to, so there may be more opinions coming.  @Scampi, @GMO, @SQFconsultant, @Setanta  I don't think the tagging works on the forums but I also had never tried.  

I'd be looking at the Margarine.

Hi chrisrushworth,

Sounds a bit weird, this is a frozen product that hasn’t been (or shouldn’t have anyway!) defrosted, right?

Last year I found a load of moulds in frozen flaky pastry which was quite annoying as it wasn’t cheap. I’m pretty sure that was temperature abuse and the sheets were packed in layers separated by wax paper.

A few questions:

Is this random or from a start or end of a production run?

How old is the product?

Are the cake boards made from cardboard/waxed cardboard? Cardboard is notorious for Y&M

Have you tried abusing some of the product to see if you get the same result?

Would posting a photo help?

Be interesting to see what you biscuit analysis comes up with.

Kind regards,

Tony

Hi chrisrushworth,

 

Sounds a bit weird, this is a frozen product that hasn’t been (or shouldn’t have anyway!) defrosted, right?

 

Last year I found a load of moulds in frozen flaky pastry which was quite annoying as it wasn’t cheap. I’m pretty sure that was temperature abuse and the sheets were packed in layers separated by wax paper.

 

A few questions:

Is this random or from a start or end of a production run?

How old is the product?

Are the cake boards made from cardboard/waxed cardboard? Cardboard is notorious for Y&M

Have you tried abusing some of the product to see if you get the same result?

Would posting a photo help?

 

Be interesting to see what you biscuit analysis comes up with.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

Morning,

Thanks for your time.

Yep frozen should only be defrosted +3h prior to service in a 0-8° chiller/fridge....

Product was made in FEB, customer alerted product in APR, they have x6 pallets and only seems to be one pallet effected - which makes me think there is temp abuse at there end.

I did some abuse trials here, left out ambient for +13 days until visible mould growth...

Regards to MARG - if it was the marg, this would affect alot more SKU & is heated +72° to melt... thus mould should be denatured?

I'm thinking it the card cake boards, there FG and coated..

Speaking with my lab apparently from a sponge p/a swab they can enumerate Y&M tests.. what's people thoughts on this?

Am i just seeking that needle in the haystack, as there have been no further complaints or re-occurrence since??

Just close out as root cause proabable temperature abuse.?? How far do i go?

I know I called the cardboard a haystack, but it shouldn't cost all that much to test it.  Sponge swabs are fairly easy to do and send off to a lab.  Even if the sponges come back negative, it doesn't mean that it wasn't the cardboard.

Bottom line is that without some amount of temperature abuse, mold growth is highly unlikely.  Mold spores are relatively common in the air, on clothes, in warehouses, etc.  Best you can do is attempt to find a source (which you have done).  If the source isn't a "harborage" site, like a drain that isn't being cleaned or an air filter that needed to be replaced, then you're mostly left with addressing the mobility of mold spores in your employee GMP training.  If the cardboard does come back positive for yeast and mold, then you can try to work with the supplier on manufacturing and storage conditions.  

You could fishbone diagram this and then show your investigation for each possible cause and that should cover you.  You've clearly identified multiple potential sources and attempted to prove/disprove them.  

For the customer, I think you go the temperature abuse route. Internally, you test the card board.  

As for temperature abuse in the delivery system, do you have records of the refrigerated truck temperature set points or product temperatures when it was received?  

I know I called the cardboard a haystack, but it shouldn't cost all that much to test it.  Sponge swabs are fairly easy to do and send off to a lab.  Even if the sponges come back negative, it doesn't mean that it wasn't the cardboard.

 

Bottom line is that without some amount of temperature abuse, mold growth is highly unlikely.  Mold spores are relatively common in the air, on clothes, in warehouses, etc.  Best you can do is attempt to find a source (which you have done).  If the source isn't a "harborage" site, like a drain that isn't being cleaned or an air filter that needed to be replaced, then you're mostly left with addressing the mobility of mold spores in your employee GMP training.  If the cardboard does come back positive for yeast and mold, then you can try to work with the supplier on manufacturing and storage conditions.  

 

You could fishbone diagram this and then show your investigation for each possible cause and that should cover you.  You've clearly identified multiple potential sources and attempted to prove/disprove them.  

 

For the customer, I think you go the temperature abuse route. Internally, you test the card board.  

 

As for temperature abuse in the delivery system, do you have records of the refrigerated truck temperature set points or product temperatures when it was received?  

Hi

I have temperature logs from haulier leaving site, to their storage depot, lorry temps, delivery temps.

Customer has failed to provide any temperature logs their end...

They have also used this pallet out sync as have had x4 other deliveries of x6 pallets... but this pallet from the first delivery is where the issue is.

I think they have **ed up and are trying to get us to PAY for the stock that they cant sell...

Thanks for all advice..