Don’t import mold!

Published: October 2nd, 2012

Revised: June 1st, 2017

Importing from overseas? Does your shipment of new products look a little worse for the wear? We can help. Sporometrics has a full range of expertise on testing biological contaminants on imported merchandise, evaluating clean-up strategies and assessing the suitability of merchandise for sale.

As the holiday season approaches, importers prepare themselves for the onslaught of eager shoppers, stocking shelves with all kinds of merchandise, much of it imported from the Far East of southeast Asia. During certain parts of the year, it is not uncommon for these products to be subject to damp conditions while in transit. The unfortunate outcome of this may be mold growth. Xerophilic fungi grow and thrive under conditions as low as 0.67 water activity (Aw). Depending on the material, a wide array of fungi may grow, including Aspergillus restrictus and Eurotium herbariorum / Aspergillus glaucus and many others. Sporometrics can help you in the risk assessment and mitigation process by definitively establishing the fungi responsible for the damage, supporting the formulation of a clean-up plan, and developing testing criteria to determine safe-for-sale.