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Challenge regarding salami, expiry dates and freezers.

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Rouwenhorst

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Posted 21 October 2015 - 01:10 PM

Hello everyone, I'm looking for the best approach towards a certain (theoretical) situation and it is like this:

 

 

In this case I am talking about a meat-processing company which gets salami delivered to them.

 

The production workers take expiry dates as last dates to procress something by.

 

Once it is processed it's attempting to be sold until the actual expiry date.

 

When the product does not get sold it gets frozen until an order arrives for this product, gets defrozen and still sold.

 

 

 

 

Now, you don't have to know much about microbiology to know that this isn't smart nor 'safe'.

 

I am looking for an alternative way of handling things, mostly with a short expiry date so that the day when you take it out of the freezer isn't also the day it expires.

 

 

 

 

To sum it up;  What is an effective way of regulating expiry dates and making sure that they can still last a few days before they are sold.

 

Take chicken liver for example, when one would cut to make certain portions should that be done immediately and then freeze it to stay safe or have some different balance of economical and the food safety side of things.

 

The easy answer would be to freeze them earlier however if you've got a fresh product then you're also not always capable of still selling it.

 

Looking for someone to give me some insight or general tips in this, since the method in theory isn't a practical/endurable one.

 

Looking forward to your answers thanks in advance!

 



JohnWheat

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Posted 21 October 2015 - 01:33 PM

Look at total 'safe life'. Ensure that there is a freeze by date which will take into account life post 'defrost'
And also give a use within date after defrost... all depends what life you/customer want at the other end?

Example - (January 1st)say the total life is 20 days then put a use by 21st Jan) or freeze by 15th Jan. Store for 3 months, defrost and give 5 days life....... example only

What you can't do is store fresh right up to use by life.

Hope that makes sense



JohnWheat

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Posted 21 October 2015 - 01:38 PM

Oh and you will need micro results from trial excerise to validate results of course and of course daily weekly verification



qalearner

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Posted 21 October 2015 - 05:57 PM

Yes, freezing does not "reset" the shelf life. Could you work with "sell-by" dates? Where if by a certain date, say halfway through the shelf life if the product is not sold it is then frozen? Freezing deli meats and then selling them as previously frozen fresh product seems a little strange. 



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Rouwenhorst

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Posted 22 October 2015 - 07:34 AM

Oh and you will need micro results from trial excerise to validate results of course and of course daily weekly verification

 

 I do understand how it isn't the right course of actions however this is what reality often comes close to due to products being sold as fresh until nearly the last day. I understand this is quite a problem because by freezing you literally just freeze the microbial growth which will just resume afterwards.. 

Yes, freezing does not "reset" the shelf life. Could you work with "sell-by" dates? Where if by a certain date, say halfway through the shelf life if the product is not sold it is then frozen? Freezing deli meats and then selling them as previously frozen fresh product seems a little strange. 

 

Sell-by dates sound interesting and perhaps could be implemented on everything which originally has the intention of selling fresh...

 

I was just wondering how companies manage until what point they still keep something fresh and attempt to sell it instead of investing time into freezing it and not being to sell (certain amounts) fresh at any given time due to it being frozen.

 

Thanks for the contributions so far!



Rouwenhorst

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Posted 22 October 2015 - 08:22 AM

Sorry for double post since I can't find an edit button but I'm looking for examples of others their experiences regarding this subject, what generally is used of the best before date while the product is fresh.

 

For example expires in 4 weeks if it isn't sold in 2 it's frozen, however if you freeze all of it you have no workable stock of fresh product anymore so meaning you aren't able to deliver the fresh product.

 

I guess sales department could buy in smaller increments to reduce amount of product having the same expiry date but still I'm looking from input/examples from others to inspire my solution.



JohnWheat

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Posted 22 October 2015 - 11:04 AM

Sorry for double post since I can't find an edit button but I'm looking for examples of others their experiences regarding this subject, what generally is used of the best before date while the product is fresh.
 
For example expires in 4 weeks if it isn't sold in 2 it's frozen, however if you freeze all of it you have no workable stock of fresh product anymore so meaning you aren't able to deliver the fresh product.
 
I guess sales department could buy in smaller increments to reduce amount of product having the same expiry date but still I'm looking from input/examples from others to inspire my solution.


Yes in a nutshell - planning will need to errr......plan :)
Really shouldn't be selling on with no life. Movement of product out of date is illegal unless being disposed of anyway.
Customers expect a minimum amount of life into depot etc. We for example will freeze (not very often mind) with 6 days of life left if we have excess stock when estimates vary wildly from actual orders (that's the minimum our customers will take). That leaves a few customers that will have frozen product with life after defrost. Not the best price but better than disposal. One or 2 customers actually sell as frozen and to use directly after defrost offering no life.


Rouwenhorst

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Posted 22 October 2015 - 11:38 AM

Yes in a nutshell - planning will need to errr......plan :)
Really shouldn't be selling on with no life. Movement of product out of date is illegal unless being disposed of anyway.
Customers expect a minimum amount of life into depot etc. We for example will freeze (not very often mind) with 6 days of life left if we have excess stock when estimates vary wildly from actual orders (that's the minimum our customers will take). That leaves a few customers that will have frozen product with life after defrost. Not the best price but better than disposal. One or 2 customers actually sell as frozen and to use directly after defrost offering no life.

 

Keep in mind this is all hypothetical but yes I do understand the concern and legal issues if this were to be real life.

 

The theoretical company in question mainly sells to whole salers, are you talking about smaller retail businesses or wholesale aswell?

 

Could you perhaps also give an estimate such as after X percentage of BBD has surpassed then 'we' (you) would freeze the product? Seeing as how six days can be a lot to some and only a few days for other products.

 

I'm starting to think it's more of a regularity order kind of thing where there's customers who always order the same from which you can expect output and communicate that with sales department, that's understandable and that's what is mostly being done.

 

 

 

My apologies for not putting enough emphasis on this before but I'd like to know how to deal with more miscellaneous kind of products of which the demand is severely less likely to be predicted correct.

Buy in small amounts and just dispose earlier (since because of the volume it has less impact) or to freeze with a certain percentage of time left something along those lines is what seems logical.

 

 

So thank you for your answer and I'm still looking for more input on how to deal with miscellaneous non-regular demand items.





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