Hello everyone,
First of all, let me introduce to you our process. We are a importer and distributor company in our country. The core activity of our organization is warehousing/storage only, we don't do repacking or reprocessing, we don't open the packages, and we delivery our products as is we received it. That is why microbiological or physical contamination due to storage facility condition is very unlikely to occur.
As part of our established HACCP, we are conducting a verification (swab testing) on our PRP (cleaning and sanitation) to verify its effectiveness. On our recent swab testing, we have receive a failed test on the parameter Standard Plate Count (SPC) which is equal to >14,000 CFU/g.
The test report has a note that <100 CFU/g is unsatisfactory, which makes our result failed. However, I scour all available references I have and I found out some reference of ready-to-eat food (e.g. soy products) have a limit of SPC equivalent to 100,000 CFU/g and this is still acceptable.
Please enlighten me, what limit of SPC we can establish for our storage swab testing.
- Pat