Re: [compost_tea] MICROBIOLOGY TESTING of COMPOST TEAS

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 16:33:59 EST

 
I was just talking with a good friend about the NOSB acceptance of the CTTF
recommendations, and apparently the NOSB has ruled that the 1.3 CFU per ml is
the value they put on max level of E. coli in tea.
 
Makes sense, given this is irrigation water levels.
 
Just wanted to let people know that there has been further development from
what I have kept up on in NOSB.
 
But I would still prefer, as a personal thing, to see no detectable E. coli
in the compost or the tea. I know it is entirely possible to routinely make
great compost, if its done right, with no human pathogens detectable in the
compost, and thus none in the tea.
 
Can people then cause contamination of the tea? Sure, and then the tea has
E. coli, but it is not because the tea was brewed wrong.
 
Can people have bio-films in the tea brewer that cause problems? Sure, but
that's a cleaning issue, just like in any other industry. Milk contaminated
with human pathogens doesn't mean milk is bad, it means there's a cleaning
issue somewhere along the line, and that needs to be seen to. We have to have
a sensible approach to making tea as well.
 

 
Elaine R. Ingham
Soil Foodweb Inc., Corvallis, Oregon
Soil Foodweb Inc., Port Jefferson, New York
Soil Foodweb Institute, Lismore Australia
Soil Foodweb Institute Cambridge, New Zealand
Laboratorios de Soil Foodweb, Culiacan, Mexico
Soil Foodweb Inc., Jerome, Idaho
Soil Foodweb Inc., South Africa








Received on Wed Dec 22 2004 - 21:55:07 EST

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