Gas production accompanied by burst risk starts early when you have a contamination with a fast growing yeast species as Saccharomyces, Zygosaccharomyces, or Candida. In the best case it is detected before the products leave the warehouse. But it becomes problematic when the products are shipped directly after filling or if there are slow growing microorganisms. There may be a good chance that a product may be called back from a wholesaler, but as soon as it reaches the retail sellers or even the end-consumer, a public call-back action becomes inevitable. The biggest challenges are the slow growing bacteria or yeasts because these may show a long latency period from which they suddenly may grow out in mostly all containers of a lot and lead to gas production including risk of burst area wide.
Routine control includes the continuous monitoring of the typical product spoilers. If always the same products are produced in a line, usually a combination of those analyses which have the best information potential while they are well adaptable into the laboratory work flow has established.
But routine can make blind – often a view from outside may help to introduce small and large improvements in the process. Especially when producing beer mixes, shanties, or fruit containing mixes, it is essential to review the routine microbiology methods of a lab: the possible spectrum of spoilers is basically changing as soon as sugar comes into the product. Besides, new raw materials as tropical fruit may bear new and even heat resistant spoilers for which the standard conservation processes may not be sufficient. A contamination by Alicyclobacillus is not at all always induced by A. acidoterrestris – anyways the standard analysis methods are often only focusing on this species.
We can be your second eye – we record the actual status of your microbiology lab and work out together with you the best routine method for you and your lab. What you can’t do yourself, our service lab is happy to assist with: The identification of unknown bacteria or yeast which caused pressure in your containers. Or the routine analysis for Alicyclobacillus according to IFU method no. 12, combined with PCR analysis – the result is available 3 days earlier and it is including a test for all Alicyclobacillus species.
You receive the best possible information from us also when backtracing spoilers through your production process: sharing an identical name does not necessarily mean identical microorganisms and identical contamination sources! By DNA sequencing we can directly compare different isolates of microorganisms and so tell you if those are really identical or if they are varieties of one species. Only with these results you can reliably localize the potential sources of a contamination.
We are fast and competent in doing routine analyses as enrichments, determination of colony counts and the differentiation of microorganisms – service and quality are most important for us. Of course we respond to your requirements and always deliver prompt and reliable results – if necessary, even through weekends.
Spoilt product or positive enrichments are further discriminated – fast and specific by PCR analyses the same day as the samples are received. We further identify unknown bacteria, yeasts or molds from product or the production area within 3 to 5 days by DNA sequencing.
Our work does not end at the analysis result, we further advise you how to deal with a contamination and propose the next steps to minimize the risk for further batches in your production line. You can also count on us when optimizing your routine quality control measures.
PIKA FastOrange is a nutrient medium which was developed especially for the detection of beer spoiling microorganisms in beer and through the whole production process. Following the one-for-all principle, it can be used for enrichment of all brewery samples.
The Nutrient medium PIKA FastOrange BRETT was developed especially for the food and beverage industry as well as for wineries. Yeasts belonging to the genus Brettanomyces/Dekkera are specifically growing. Their presence is indicated by a color change.
The enrichment medium FastOrange Yeast was specifically developed for use in the food and beverage industry as well as in breweries and wineries. In this medium both yeasts and molds are growing.
Our detection Kits B and H are in use for the detection and identification of yeasts and molds. They are optimized for the analysis of beer as well as of sugar containing food and beverages. Detection by Screening or single species identification.
