Microbial Contamination

What is microbial contamination?

Many ingredients have to be grown and harvested before they are manufactured and as a result can be contaminated at any stage of the food chain. Microorganisms can be introduced to the ingredient at pre-harvest stage, this may be through fertiliser or unhygienic workers. Post-harvest contamination could occur through preparation, distribution or storage of the ingredient or final product [3].

If supplements are contaminated with microbes it can also lead to a faster degradation and lower stability of the ingredients. This can result in the active ingredients within the product losing their potency and effectiveness [2].

The main forms of microbial contamination that we are concerned about are:Escherichia coli (E.coli), Salmonella and fungi in the form of mould or yeast.

What do we do to prevent this?

Hygiene through the supply chain is extremely important to us and this is why we choose to work with our manufacturer who is Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) certified and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certified. By working with these certifications it ensures the safety and quality control is in place for our product.

Each raw ingredient is provided with a COA and within this displays testing for microbial contamination.

It is then important to test the finished product as contamination is possible through any stage of the supply chain and might have occurred through the distribution or storage stage.

What are safe levels of microbial contamination?

Guidelines for E.coli and salmonella is that it is not detected at all and a total plate count of <10,000 cfu/g for yeast and <1,000 cfu/g for mould.

What are the effects of microbial contamination?

Some common symptoms caused by food-borne pathogens include nausea, abdominal paid/discomfort, diarrhea, fever and lack of appetite [3].

More specifically for E.coli it involves hemorrhagic colitis, severe diarrhea, abdominal pain and vomiting, and it can often lead to kidney failure.

For salmonella it includes acute gastroenteritis, painful abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, headache and body aches [1].

What are our third party test results?

For our Athletic Energy Stack our latest results are:

Microbial test Results