Dear GMO,
Just for other people’s information, here is a link (including a few humourous addenda) for your “ambient” sausage
http://news.uk.msn.c...entid=151975623
Two possibilities come to mind, (a) the sausage content is genuinely shelf stable or (b) the product is the typical RTE, non-shelf stable item and something rather peculiar is occurring regarding storage, ie as per yr post.
Various sausage based entities do globally occur in category (a), notably fermented forms, but I presume it is safe to assume that the item under discussion is in group (b).
(anyone interested in the many numerous sausage permutational stabilities possible might be interested in these 2 links –
1. http://www.fsis.usda...afety/index.asp
2. http://www.fda.gov/F...s/ucm094143.htm
The posted query seems to have a potential relevance to section 1.4.3 in link2 above, ie this extract –
The United Kingdom does not use the term "potentially hazardous food" but identifies foods that require temperature control in the Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations, (1995) SI 1995/2200. These regulations require "Chill holding" at 8 °C (46 °F) for "any food which is likely to support the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or the formation of toxins." Foods considered likely to fall into this category include the following:
• Dairy products, such as soft or semi-hard cheeses ripened by molds and/or bacteria, and dairy based desserts, unless the pH is 4.5;
• Cooked products such as meat, fish, eggs, milk, hard and soft cheese, rice, pulses, and vegetables;
• Smoked or cured fish;
• Smoked or cured ready-to-eat meat which is not ambient shelf-stable;
• Prepared ready-to-eat foods such as prepared vegetables, salads;
• Uncooked or partly cooked pastry and dough products such as pizzas, sausage rolls, or fresh pasta.
Time-related exemptions from temperature control are provided for the following products:
• "(a) cooked pies and pasties containing meat, fish or any substitute for meat or fish or vegetables or cheese or any combination thereof encased in pastry into which nothing has been introduced after baking and sausage rolls which are intended to be sold on the day of their production or the next day;
• "(b) uncut baked egg and milk pastry product, e.g., custard tarts and Yorkshire curd tarts intended for sale within 24 hours of production."
General exemptions from chill holding requirements are given to "foods which, for the duration of their shelf life, may be kept at ambient temperatures with no risk to health." A food business must provide "well-founded scientific assessment of the safety of the food at the specified temperature and shelf-life" for products recommended to be held above 8 °C (46 °F). Regulations do not articulate data requirements, rather they stipulate that assessments should be done by a "competent laboratory," either in-house, for large businesses, or through independent laboratories.
These regulations recognize the influence of processing and time. For example, baking destroys vegetative cells and dehydrates exterior surfaces. The potential for growth of pathogenic spore formers exists, but time is used to control this hazard. The panel questions whether there is adequate scientific basis to support a time of one day of safety at ambient temperature for the time/related exemptions.
I hv “boldened” the particularly interesting bits, it seems that back in 2001 (?), someone else also noticed the peculiar dispensation to sausage rolls !
The 4hour period referred in GMO’s post is specified in this (older) official link
http://archive.food....ide/tempreg.htm(paras 21,24) but I don’t see any mention of longer periods at that time. One suspects that the exemption list got quietly expanded sometime later, or perhaps there reallly is an actual scientific sausage roll defence lurking somewhere in the fsa literature.
(An interesting query to test yr local shop, or County Council)
Rgds / Charles.C
