Commercial Sterility Testing

According to the Communiqué Amending the Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on Microbiological Criteria (Communiqué No. 2009/68):

• Commercial sterility is defined as a food product in which, following incubation for 7 days at 35°C–37°C and 50°C–55°C, no leakage or swelling of the packaging is observed, or the difference between the pH values measured before and after incubation does not exceed 0.5.
• Sterility testing is defined as the procedure that guarantees the absence of microbiological growth in food products under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions after incubation for 15 days at 30°C and 7 days at 55°C.

To prevent the deterioration of food products during storage and transportation until they reach the consumer, all microorganisms must be destroyed or inactivated. In our laboratory, the determination of whether a product is sterile, together with the evaluation of its shelf life and quality and the control of the production process, is carried out in accordance with the TS EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard.