Microbial Challenges and Assays of "Cold Fill" Food Process Systems

Many low-acid and acidified foods, because of certain properties or attributes, can be safely packed by what are becoming known as “cold fill” methods. With this method there might be some thermal treatment of the product or certain ingredients before the product is compounded and packed, but there is no thermal treatment after packing. Recent regulatory policy now requires validation by appropriate microbiological challenges to such processes to assure that product safety and the public health are protected. The IEH staff has the expertise and the laboratory support to design and conduct the appropriate challenge tests that will support your process to the regulatory authorities. Successful challenges will demonstrate that the product will not support the growth, or actually destroy pathogens or pathogen surrogates that are intentionally inoculated into the product.