Microbiology of the food chain — Horizontal method for the detection and enumeration of Clostridium spp. — Part 1: Enumeration of sulfite-reducing Clostridium spp. by colony-count technique

This document specifies the enumeration of sulfite-reducing Clostridium spp. by the colony-count technique.

This document is applicable to:

— products intended for human consumption;

— products for feeding animals;

— environmental samples in the area of food and feed production and handling;

— samples from the primary production stage.

NOTE This method has been validated in an interlaboratory study for the following food categories:

— ready-to-eat, ready-to-reheat meat products;

— eggs and egg products (derivates);

— processed fruits and vegetables;

— infant formula and infant cereals;

— multi-component foods or meal components.

It has also been validated for the following other categories:

— pet food and animal feed;

— environmental samples (food or feed production).

As this method has been validated for at least five food categories, this method is applicable for a broad range of food. For detailed information on the validation, see Clause 11 and Annex C. Since the method is not commonly used for samples in the primary production stage, this category was not included in the interlaboratory study. Therefore, no performance characteristics were obtained for this cate