11 replies to this topic

[Joyce_Admiral]

Hi,

Could anyone suggest what are the possible hazards that could be present for the raw ingredients, particularly concerning on capsicum and spices (cumin and paprika) in making tomato salsa (processed; in glass jar), and could be a critical control point?

Thanks & regards,
Joyce

[Charles.C]

Dear JoyceAdmiral,

I presume there is no heat treatment in yr salsa production.

How about the preliminary treatment of the spices ?? Sterilised or ????

I also presume the capsicum is not heat treated prior to yr reception ??

The typical potential pathogens on raw vegetables (and raw spices) are species from the ground / environment like Salmonella, E.coli O157, S.aureus etc but these will not typically create a HACCP critical point if you hv no appropriate corrective action to remove them, eg heat treatment (which would itself then probably become the CCP).

The above comments are a major reason for the necessity to control the production / harvesting hygiene of raw vegetables so as to minimise the risk of contamination.

Rgds / Charles.C

added - i just noticed that heat treatment is also typically used in glass jar production so this step will likely be yr CCP as indicated above assuming that the procedure [temp-time] is designed / validated to eliminate the target pathogen [may likely depend on yr local regulations]. Sorry for my misunderstanding.

[Joyce_Admiral]

Dear JoyceAdmiral,

I presume there is no heat treatment in yr salsa production.

How about the preliminary treatment of the spices ?? Sterilised or ????

I also presume the capsicum is not heat treated prior to yr reception ??

The typical potential pathogens on raw vegetables (and raw spices) are species from the ground / environment like Salmonella, E.coli O157, S.aureus etc but these will not typically create a HACCP critical point if you hv no appropriate corrective action to remove them, eg heat treatment (which would itself then probably become the CCP).

The above comments are a major reason for the necessity to control the production / harvesting hygiene of raw vegetables so as to minimise the risk of contamination.

Rgds / Charles.C

added - i just noticed that heat treatment is also typically used in glass jar production so this step will likely be yr CCP as indicated above assuming that the procedure [temp-time] is designed / validated to eliminate the target pathogen [may likely depend on yr local regulations]. Sorry for my misunderstanding.

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the salsa will be heated to 80⁰C before filling into the glass jar. Regarding to the microorganisms, I agreed that heat treatment will kill the non-spore forming microorganisms and thus will not be a CCP.

However, I had few concerns that I would like to enquire. Firstly is the residue level of the pesticide used for the fresh raw capsicum, could this possibly be a CCP as a chemical hazard? Secondly is could high level of pathogenic microorganisms, such as Salmonella contaminating the fresh raw capsicum be a CCP during receiving? Thirdly is the raw spices, could Bacillus spores presence at high level and be a CCP during receiving of raw ingredients?

Thanks and regards,
Joyce

[Charles.C]

Dear JoyceAdmiral,

I somewhat avoided too much detail in my first post due lack of knowledge yr process.

I deduce that basically yr queries refer to the HACCP-handling of the BCP composition / raw material receiving step.

The fact is that the use of the prerequisite (raw material receiving step) methodology was (partly) introduced to act as a generic solution to accommodate queries as per yr pesticide question via a raw material specification, the latter is compiled on safety / quality logic. Originally this procedure was not routine (I don’t use it myself) but now is near standard vis-à-vis Codex etc (ie auditors like it since it avoids nasty technical questions and (their) time = money). This prerequisite approach also conveniently avoids involving CCPs for raw material input failures, the scientific basis is perhaps debatable but the pragmatism probably not .

So yes, the chemical factors like pesticides may be relevant – a prerequisite supplier factor as per yr, mutually-agreed, specification.

And yes again, microbiologically speaking, the official minimum heating requirements assume a certain level of "contamination" if you go into their derivation (the detailed maths are googlable and also linked on this forum somewhere.
I have (rarely) encountered the situation you mention where the normal cooking treatment simply failed to reduce the Salmonella level below detection in the end product necessitating a reprocess (very, very poor raw material). If you look at the US, low acid, canning regulations, you will see a caveat something like “the specified heat treatment may not be appropriate for materials with unusually high bacterial loads / certain matrices”.
From memory, toxin risks from species like Bacillus are controlled via the appropriate, designated post-heating cooling. Nonetheless, an absolute level is similarly usually specified in the (prerequisite) raw material spec. again.

If you are interested, there is a lot of technical explanations regarding the, especially microbiological, haccp-oriented specification of raw materials such as discussed here in the publications of Snyder ( http://www.hi-tm.com ). These analyse what cooking process (heat etc) is necessary to (safely) match certain target (usually Salmonella) bacterial input level. But I daresay you are aware of a lot of this already.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Joyce_Admiral]

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the information. It is very helpful to me.

As for spices, the ground cumin did not undergo any pre-treatment, it is not steam treated, according to the specification. Whereas for paprika, it is steam treated. Thus, I assume I will have to look more details into the non-steam treated ground cumin, regarding the bacillus spores, in case it is highly contaminated and spores is not able to be eliminated by heat treatment, am I right?

Thanks & regards,

Joyce

[Tony-C]

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the information. It is very helpful to me.

As for spices, the ground cumin did not undergo any pre-treatment, it is not steam treated, according to the specification. Whereas for paprika, it is steam treated. Thus, I assume I will have to look more details into the non-steam treated ground cumin, regarding the bacillus spores, in case it is highly contaminated and spores is not able to be eliminated by heat treatment, am I right?

Thanks & regards,

Joyce

Hi Joyce

You should be using pH to help control this:

http://www.ag.ndsu.e...n1396.pdf<br />
Regards,

Tony

[Charles.C]

Dear Tony,

Fascinating stuff.

Must confess that as probably shown in my post, I know absolutely nothing about the specifics of salsa except that there’s a (hot) movie about it!

Never previously heard of a water-bath canner before either ! (a home autoclave I deduce). I specialise in supermarket trolling .
( http://www.backwoods...les/clay53.html )

( http://www.paulnoll....water-bath.html )

A little research reveals that the topic is indeed a myriad of possible alchemies / logics, eg –

http://en.allexperts...-production.htm

http://en.allexperts...roduction-1.htm

Perhaps JoyceAdmiral might enlighten us as to more details of her intended recipe / flow chart ?.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Joyce_Admiral]

Hi,

Thanks Tony & Charles.
I had considered the acidity issue and had added lemon juice to decrease the pH of my tomato salsa to about pH 3.7 as my specification.

To give more information about my product.
The ingredients I used are canned tomato, fresh capsicum, fresh onion, cumin, paprika, xanthan gum, caramel and lemon juice.
The heat treatment for the product is 80⁰C for 10 minutes and hot-filling into glass jar, then cooled in chlorinated cooling water for 10 minutes. I had managed to create vacuum through my process.
Although the pH of the tomato salsa is about pH3.7, however, the water activity is quite high, Aw is about 0.95-0.96.

May I also ask which microorganisms should I particularly concern for my HACCP?

Another question is could physical hazard be a CCP in receiving of raw ingredients? Since there is no further steps that can remove foreign particles.

Thanks & regards,
Joyce

[Charles.C]

Dear JoyceAdmiral,

The heat treatment for the product is 80degC for 10 minutes

Applied / Controlled / monitored - How? large scale / small scale ?

Another question is could physical hazard be a CCP in receiving of raw ingredients? Since there is no further steps that can remove foreign particles.

As per prev.post, if prerequisite raw material = BCP, yr question is auto-answered. If not use prerequisite, then physical contamination IMEX is not usually a CCP (I presume you do include a typical cleaning/washing stage or the material is already prepared as per yr spec.) unless some unusual risk is present, eg glass contamination.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Joyce_Admiral]

Hi Charles,

The heat treatment is done through cooking using steam kettle. We heat the product in the steam kettle until the internal temperature of the product reached 80degC, then we start counting 10mins. I would considered as small scale.

May I ask what is the IMEX you are refering? I have not come across this before.

Thanks for your answer. I think I get your points. If I have prerequisite, I should not have any CCP for my raw ingredients in this case.

Thanks & regards,
Joyce

[Charles.C]

Dear JoyceAdmiral,

IMEX = In My Experience.

Thks yr info. Previously, you asked about the relevant HACCP microorgs. The general answer is as I mentioned earlier which was a selection of a few well-known, vegetable linked, human pathogens (eg vegetative - Sa, E.cO157, L.m, sporing - C.b, B.c). There are (many) other textbook possibilities reflecting soil / environment / animal-human contamination of course.

However, the choice of target organism for vegetative destruction may depend on yr local condition. For example USA tends to select Salmonella since this is their most frequent reported “incident” organism. UK (and often EC I think) prefers L.mono since this is a higher heat resistant species within the usual group of possibilities (but not exclusively depending on the exact situation). I daresay other countries vary again. The result is that temp-time regulations may vary.

The above was partly my reason for asking yr heating conditions - curious as to the validation of yr temp-time for the hot-fill procedure.

Regarding above aspects, you might find the 2 attachments below interesting (eg, see pgs 50-51; 118-2,-3 respectively)

 Managing hazards (retail) food operation 2007 - DIFSC06.pdf   4.95MB   186 downloads

 Food technology fact sheet - fapc118.pdf   636.12KB   197 downloads

Rgds / Charles.C

[Joyce_Admiral]

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the info. Both files are very useful to me. I had sorted my queries. Thanks!

Regards,

Joyce:biggrin: