New microbiological challenges for the sugar industry with focus on thermophilic acidophilic bacteria*

The potential occurrence of guaiacol producing Alicyclobacillus in sugar products and in the sugar production process was evaluated. Final product testing revealed that granulated sugar products showed random background contamination while liquid sugar products were free from guaiacol producing bacteria. Contamination tracing in the sugar factory process showed that beet soil is a primary contamination route to a sugar factory. The bacteria were completely eliminated in the juice purification at all evaluated factories. Random re-contamination was observed in wash syrups from the A-station. Environmental contamination from air and surfaces could not be observed while 20% of human test subjects showed skin contamination of guaiacol producing bacteria. A successful elimination of guaiacol producing bacteria from sugar products was concluded to be unfeasible due to random re-contamination events in the sugar production process. It is suggested that the goal must be to evaluate realistic technical solutions located at the last step of the supply chain. Thermal and non-thermal treatment techniques are available and among those UV-treatment appears to be a promising elimination technique for TAB (thermophilic acidophilic bacteria) and GP-TAB.