Häagen Dazs Improve Enterobacteriaceae Testing

July 04, 2019

In order to improve the laboratory workflow of their products, Häagen-Dazs, one of the world’s leading ice-cream manufacturers, was looking for a solution to optimize Enterobacteriaceae testing and decision-taking in ice cream production.Traditional analysis methods used by Häagen Dazs were creating time lags, leading to spoilages and financial losses. Häagen Dazs chose bioMérieux’s system CHEMUNEX®, a Enterobacteriaceae testing system. Sophie Cornu, Microbiology Laboratory Manager at Häagen Dazs, explains how the adoption of the CHEMUNEX® system helped Häagen Dazs optimize production and logistics, resulting in greater company profitability.

Established in the United States in 1961, Häagen-Dazs has grown to become one of the world’s prominent ice-cream manufacturers. Häagen-Dazs is well known for their ice cream, ice cream bars and sorbet bars due to their high quality milk and other resource materials. Overall, they export to 84 different countries.

bioMérieux, a global leader in microbiological testing solutions, provided Häagen-Dazs, a prominent ice-cream manufacturer with global exports, the ideal fix to a particular problem.

One of Häagen-Dazs’s prominent labs located in Tilloy-lès-Mofflaines near Arras in the north of France was chosen due to its particularly high quality in milk products.

Sophie Cornu, the Microbiology Laboratory Manager, joined this lab in 2003 and implemented a DILUMAT® gravimetric dilutor, in combination with DILUBAG® ready-to-use diluents, leading to lessened MSD incidence for the lab technicians and improvements to automation and standardization in the production process. She continued with her method of automation optimization when she chose the CHEMUNEX® BACTIFLOW® ALS” system in 2006. Later on in 2015, she decided to choose TEMPO® to further optimize Enterobacteriaceae testing in order to improve the decision-making process for their ice-cream production.

As Häagen-Dazs is a large and international company that exports to 84 countries, quality assurance and meeting product regulation standards are of the utmost importance. In order to do so, this requires stringent quality testing. Ms. Cornu clarifies the problem as, “The time lag associated with traditional laboratory analysis methods resulted in significant production spoilage and financial losses for the company.” The use of conventional testing methods created interruptions in laboratory workflows, product losses and therefore negative impacts on finances.

The CHEMUNEX® system provided a complete solution to Häagen-Dazs’s problem by “cutting down production spoilage thanks to faster decision-taking”, due to the reduced testing times. CHEMUNEX® decreased traditional testing times from 24 to 13 hours, resulting in less inventory costs. Direct savings alone were equivalent to the cost of the CHEMUNEX® system, a highly cost-effective product that “considerably improved our operational organization and our financial flows,” stated Ms. Cornu.

bioMérieux provided full service support with an expert team so that installation went smoothly. There was an automatic system connectivity to the LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) and full data traceability combined with analytical speed, which meant Häagen-Dazs could be much more responsive in adjusting production and correcting any quality defects.

According to Ms. Cornu, the CHEMUNEX® system is a “ground-breaking laboratory instrument” due to its ability to improve multiple departments. The increase in analysis speed helped increase production runs from 24 hours to 90 hours, directly benefiting logistics due to a 50% decrease for end product warehouse stocks. The implementation of CHEMUNEX® lead to complete operational and organizational improvements, as well as direct increases in company profits. “The lab is now seen as a genuine partner in the production process,” claimed Ms. Cornu and quality assurance has been dramatically improved overall.

CHEMUNEX® is an ultra-rapid microbial detection system. The system allows for the detection of the total flora in the case of commercial sterility testing or the detection of fungi (yeasts and moulds). It applies mainly to the food and beverage industry such as :

• Dairy and plant based
• Culture based (yoghurt, greek yoghurt, fromage frais)
• Nutritional and sport beverages
• Aseptic tea and coffee
• Soups and broths
• Fruit preparations and juices
• Desserts

Learn more about CHEMUNEX®

The CHEMUNEX® System is used for a broad range of pathogen tests in several industries, as for example Commercial Sterility test for dessert, milk based products, juice and beverage, yeast and mold detection in yogurts, fermented milk products, fruit preparations and beverages. You can also use the CHEMUNEX® System for Enterobacteriaceae in yogurt, fermented milk products and ice creams.

You can use the CHEMUNEX® System for a broad range of tests

• Commercial Sterility test: for desserts and milk-based products
• Commercial Sterility testing: for UHT Milk
• Presence / Absence Test: testing Enterobacteriaceae in yogurt, fermented milk products and ice creams
• Yeast Detection: in yogurts and fermented milk products
• Yeast Detection: in fruit preparations, fruit juices and beverages
• Yeast and Molds detection: in non-filterable beverages and fruit juices
• Presence / Absence Test: of yeast and mold in filterable beverages
• Commercial Sterility test: for fruit Juice and beverages

Other protocols available:

• Process water testing: direct analysis
• Commercial Sterility testing: for soups and sauces

Learn more about this solution