Hello all,
I am looking for a good source for at what levels microorganisms are becoming dangerous for food safety.
Our products (seeds and kernels) have a natural low AW value so they do not support the growth of microorganisms and are traditionally only used in the bakery industry.
But now the products are used for other purposes and we are getting more questions about microbiology.
There are so many different limits but I cannot find when the microorganisms become poisonous and not fit for consumption.
for example Bacillus Cereus for our products
- EU legislation -> No limit
- Dutch legislation -> 100.000 cfu/g
- German workgroup who set limits for micro in food -> 1.000 cfu/g
- Customer request (example) -> 10 cfu/g
Legislation is ofcourse leading, so when supplying to The Netherlands the limit would be 100.000 cfu/g but if the customer request is 10 cfu/g we need to find a middle.
This made me wonder at what levels are the microorganisms become poisonous and not fit for consumption.
Is there a source for this?