Hi,
We are having a discussion at our company: we produce a dry powder with a low Aw-value.
Occasionally we are facing a contamination with salmonella in our finished product. We are working very hard to get this under control.
The manager now has heard salmonella will die off in low moisture product after about six months of storage and is convinced this also counts for our product. I have some correspondence from an external microbiological expert who is stating this indeed will occur in some occasions, and could be the case for our product. However, in mij previous work experience I have seen salmonella surviving in a product which was even more dry for a much more longer period (and even after a heating step).
We (the QA department) will not accept "storage >6mnd" as a reliable killing method for pathogens and I have found some articles which confirm the survival of salmonella i low moisture-foods, but I am quite curious to hear your opinions on this! Is it common for salmonella to die off in low moisture products?