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If enterobacteriace is present in a sample will Ecoli be present?

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ammara ashraf

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Posted 22 October 2016 - 08:16 AM

i want to confirm that one my food sample contains enteriobacteriaace in high amount but Ecoli is not present... are the result correct or there is some error in testing. i want to confirm if EB is present than is it must that Ecoli or Coli should be present. kindly help.



Slab

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Posted 22 October 2016 - 11:47 AM

Hi, Ammara;

 

Enterobacteriaceae is a very large group of microorganisms, which do include some pathogenic species. It is very possible that e. coli is absent from this sampling, however if ETB sample levels are excessive (>10^3) you may want to increase sample rate for pathogens (salmonella is another that should be screened).  

 

Enterobacteriaceae has replaced coliform testing as a more accurate means of evaluating environmental health, and employee hygiene.  Most organisms are harmless, and some even beneficial, so don't be too alarmed as long as pathogen screening comes back absent.

 

 

Enterobacteriaceae


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Charles.C

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Posted 23 October 2016 - 09:27 AM

i want to confirm that one my food sample contains enteriobacteriaace in high amount but Ecoli is not present... are the result correct or there is some error in testing. i want to confirm if EB is present than is it must that Ecoli or Coli should be present. kindly help.

 

Basically, the only way to confirm E.coli is present is to perform a specific test Procedure for E.coli (eg as in BAM) and get a confirmed positive result.

 

Even a negative result will not absolutely prove E.coli is absent due to sampling limitations. The appropriate terminology is usually something like "not detected" in X grams of sample, or possibly "less than Y per gram".


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


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Posted 31 October 2016 - 07:43 PM

What Slab and Charles said.

 

If for whatever reason a customer/supplier/audit disagrees with this explanation. You can reference NACMCF's current thinking on the topic:

 

"One of the more difficult microbiological limits to establish to reflect loss of process control or 1083 insanitary conditions is that for Gram-negative bacteria, whether coliforms, fecal coliforms, 1084 Enterobacteriaceae or E. coli. Kornacki and others (Kornacki et al., 2013) provide an historical 1085 evaluation of these criteria for foods and their utility based on current knowledge. None of these 1086 Gram-negative bacteria accurately and consistently reflect fecal contamination of raw and 1087 processed foods nor are they useful or reliable as index organisms predicting the presence of pathogens."

 

The Kornacki reference is in the newest version of standard methods.

 

http://www.fsis.usda...pdf?MOD=AJPERES


Austin Bouck
Owner/Consultant at Fur, Farm, and Fork.
Consulting for companies needing effective, lean food safety systems and solutions.

Subscribe to the blog at furfarmandfork.com for food safety research, insights, and analysis.



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