What causes yeast and mold growth in wasabi mayonnaise and pate?
Hi,
I am having a bit of a trouble with high yeast and mold count in wasabi mayonnaise and trout pate during microbiological testing.
Can someone please advise what causes the fungal growth in above mentioned products and how it can be controlled?
Also, can someone advise which bacteria needs most attention on microbiological testing for Wasabi mayonnaise?
If anyone has informative documents i would really appreciate if you could send it on to me for my reference.
Thank you in advance.
For the bacteria with the mayonnaise it would be e. coli, salmonella, and s. aureus. I use this tool and then continue research based on this FDA guidance document. https://www.fda.gov/.../99581/download
As for yeasts and molds - your products are high in moisture which leads them to be susceptible to yeast and mold as a spoilage organism. The main causes would be contamination from the processing environment like poor air quality from air handling units (filters, duct work, cooling coils), or from growth within the production rooms. You also need to look at your process and formulations to consider whether preservatives or a heat treatment is needed.
I obviously don't know what your space looks so collect some environmental air samples within your production environment to see if you get high counts, you may be able to pin-point the issue that way before messing with your formulas.