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Microbiology testing
We have starting to do contract filling services and need guidance on
microbiology testing. We do not do any product manufacturing. All product and components are supplied by the customer. How do we assure that all incoming product & components are “clean” ?
My back ground from the ice cream industry was that when tankers arrived with the cream, product samples were taken. Two samples were drawn from a valve before any product was pumped out of the tanker, two samples were then drawn from the storage tank after the product was pumped in. One of each sample was then taken back to the processing plant with the driver, the other two samples were sent to a local testing lab. This assured unbiased results.
What resources do I have available to do a independent testing procedure for incoming product and for the outgoing finished goods?
What a the general costs associated with this type of testing? -
7 Replies
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You have to contact your nearest microbiological analysis service supplier for that kind of information. For general guidance I recommend the following book: Cosmetic Microbiology: A practical Approach by Philip Geis
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Dilfre,
Thank you for the information. Would I just Google 🙂
microbiological analysis service
to find someone local?
Thanks again. -
why did your company start doing this before even getting the correct equipment in! if you dont want so spend cash on an autoclave and oven and a bunch of lab supplies definitely get it contracted out.
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I would recommend taking a look at the Colipa guidelines for microbial management. It is free to download, link below:-
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@Wolf For finished products you need to contact a lab that specializes in cosmetic product analysis. The reason is that there are specific protocols for cosmetic products. For any product that contains preservatives, as cosmetics do, the preservatives need to be neutralized before running microbial tests otherwise they will interfere with the analysis. Cosmetic testing labs are very familiar with this.
You need to run at least total plate count for bacteria and standard plate count for fungi (yeast and mold). You can expect to pay around 20 bucks for each analysis.
There are several labs around the country. I send my samples to Microchem Laboratory, LLC in Texas. -
I use Microchem and they are outstanding. Are you located in the US and if so, what region.
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Thank you everyone for your feedback. Well look into Microchem for these services.
Thanks again
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