Dear Tony, thanks for posting that nice checklist.
"Are there effective systems in place to prevent contamination of organic products with non-organic products?"
-Interesting point! Does this point have any relevance to food safety? We do not use any organic products though, but would be interested to know if there is any regulation with regards to this point. (Kindly excuse me for my lack of knowlegde in organic products.
)
"Are frozen foods safely defrosted in a refrigerator?"
- In case of any urgent orders, can other safe thawing methods be used?
Is there a vegetarian policy in place (if applicable)?
-This point under Physical Contamination Controls is meant to ensure no bones are in the food or have I got it wrong?
Dear Jean,
I am not a food technologist or microbiologist but on the basis of my little knowledge I'm daring to answer your queries. Hopefully some food safety expert will endorse or correct it!
Preventing contamination of organic products with inorganic products simply means keeping organic and inorganic food separate. IMO, this is a major concern of food safety as type and/or extent of microbiological hazards associated with both type of foods are different and should be controlled with different type and/or extent of control measure(s). The same concept resides behind the development of vegetarian policy. Keeping and handling vegetable and non-vegetable products separately is necessary to prevent transfer of microbial load from one to another group.
We are currently using fresh meat but our procedure specify that for handling frozen meat, we will defrost the frozen meat up to max 3
oC in the refrigerator and then wash it with potable normal water so that temperature do not cross the limit (4~5
oC). The temperature and time control during and after defrosting are the controlling parameter. In other words keeping the frozen item out of danger zone (4 to 60
oC.) before further processing is the key point. For authentic guidance related to thawing of frozen item you may refer to
http://www.fsis.usda...Thaw/index.asp.Regards:
Zeeshan
Edited by Zeeshan, 06 April 2010 - 05:58 AM.