5 treats fail safety checks

July 26, 2011

Five of 1,100 ice cream and frozen confection samples have failed a Centre for Food Safety hygiene test.
 
Two ice-cream scoop samples and one soft ice-cream sample were found to have bacteria counts exceeding the legal limit. Two other ice-cream scoop and soft ice-cream samples were over the limit for coliform organisms.
 
Two more samples of ice-cream scoops were found to contain excess coliform organisms, and have already been announced.
 
The excessive bacteria is believed to be caused by sub-optimal hygienic conditions under which the frozen confections had been processed. The centre has issued warning letters to the retailers involved.
 
Meanwhile, all samples passed the test for pathogens. The centre said the overall satisfactory rate in the hygiene indicators test stayed high at 99.5% this year, the same level as last year.
 
The centre also tested 100 samples of 24 brands of powdered infant formula from different countries for E.sakazakii (Cronobacter spp.). All passed.
 
E.sakazakii (Cronobacter spp.) is a pathogen that generally causes disease in people with weakened immune systems. The bacterium can cause invasive infections in infants. Although the source of E.sakazakii (Cronobacter spp.) is not known, in many cases of infant infection, an increasing number of reports suggest powdered infant formula is a vehicle for the infection.