Case Study: Contamination in Beer

In this incident, a beer bottle containing a foreign matter was sent to Better Call Harry at CBS46 in Atlanta, GA, who contacted us to investigate the matter.

Biological contamination (bacteria, viruses, or microbes) in food or beverages is well known, but people often overlook physical contamination. A physical contaminant is considered a foreign matter, any unknown material that is found in a food or a beverage that should not be there. The contaminant can be introduced to a food or beverage product at any point in its production or distribution. This can be due to issues with equipment or inadequate handling by employees. Food and beverage facilities usually have foreign matter control programs to locate those before the product reaches the client, but sometimes those programs fail.

Most incidents do not cause major issues, but consumers sometimes are curious about what they find.

Using PLM and SEM imaging we were able to identify the unknown matter and determine whether it is a biological or physical contaminant.

In this case, we investigated a contamination in beer, but we have also looked at contaminant in bread, chocolate and even granola.  Interested to learn more about our services for the Food and Beverage industry? – Read below

• Foreign Material on Bread
• Foreign Material in a Granola Bar
• Foreign Material on Produce
• Glass in a Chocolate Bar