Staph aureus growth on jerky

I am looking for information on the water activity limit of growth of Staph aureus on anaerobic bags of RTE beef jerky. The product is not gas flushed and is put into a bag with a large scavenger. I have been unsuccessful finding information that shows that beef jerky will be shelf stable at 0.90 for non-gas flushed bags. Much of it refers to product that has been gas flushed prior to adding a scavenger.

A USDA FSRE Shelf Stable document mentions that the minimum water activity for growth is 0.90 for Staph in anaerobic conditions but during a prior USDA FSA, the auditor said that FSRE documents cannot be used as supplemental information for your HACCP plan because there are not any references listed on the document.

Would anyone have information regarding Staph vs RTE jerky?

Thank you!

I am looking for information on the water activity limit of growth of Staph aureus on anaerobic bags of RTE beef jerky. The product is not gas flushed and is put into a bag with a large scavenger. I have been unsuccessful finding information that shows that beef jerky will be shelf stable at 0.90 for non-gas flushed bags. Much of it refers to product that has been gas flushed prior to adding a scavenger.

A USDA FSRE Shelf Stable document mentions that the minimum water activity for growth is 0.90 for Staph in anaerobic conditions but during a prior USDA FSA, the auditor said that FSRE documents cannot be used as supplemental information for your HACCP plan because there are not any references listed on the document.

Would anyone have information regarding Staph vs RTE jerky?

Thank you!

Dear stcik1,
try read those documents bellow, maybe helpfull

Regards,
Hadi

Dear stick1,

I think HPG's nice docs showed the general way to go.
I also had a look for specific jerky references.

The publications below appear to answer yr query but I am a bit cautious since the situation is apparently quite complex. For example, this text in ref d4 below pgs 194-195

Drying
L. monocytogenes can grow if a w above 0.92 and S. aureus growth & toxigeneses can occur if S. aureus survived heat treatment.
Low water activity precludes bacterial pathogen growth. The aw required to prevent growth of S. aureus (0.86) is lower than that for other pathogens.
Packaging
Potential post-lethality exposure to Lm.
SSOPs prevent contamination.
Growth precluded by previous drying step – water activity of product is much less than 0.92 minimum required for Lm growth. The drying process meets the criteria described in 9 CFR 430.4 for Alternative 2

I did not investigate what exactly alternative 2 means.

d2 is i think still current on the Uni.Wisconsin website and contains "a reference".
d1 is the reference in d2
d3 is a little more general data

As per above, I suspect that generic hacccp plans hv accordingly taken some "safest" options. In some cases 0.85 is picked for "all" species, maybe giving a bit of "safety-factor" eg ref d4, pg 207

d2 - validated CL for beef jerky - CL Jerky Staph & LM.pdf   138.4KB   17 downloads
d1 Beef jerky Ingham - Jerky Staph & LM JFP 69.pdf   65.72KB   12 downloads
d3 processing beef jerky - Compliance for jerky.pdf   195.41KB   16 downloads
d4 (2009) - FSRE_SS_HACCP_Student.pdf   2.92MB   11 downloads

If the above is insufficient, pls revert.

added - this one taken from the website also looks interesting but can see the data is now getting a bit "old" although i daresay the auditor will not care.

d5 (2004) - AAMP Beef Jerky.pdf   58.73KB   9 downloads

Rgds / Charles.C