HACCP in Bottling Alcoholic Drinks

Hello all
i have a colleague who makes flavoured alcoholic drinks by steeping frozen fruit in the neat alcohol spirit, and diluting with deminerilised water, sieving, filtering and bottling.
he needs to develop food safety documentation -

i think the greatest issues are going to be quality of fruit etc, with physical contamination being the main concern (i'm presently ignoring the ABV% issue - and dealing with this separately)

cleaning and sterilising of equipment will be fairly critical also, as well as the bottles that he's putting the product into

pest control, etc

anyone got any other ideas?

any help much appreciated

Hello all
i have a colleague who makes flavoured alcoholic drinks by steeping frozen fruit in the neat alcohol spirit, and diluting with deminerilised water, sieving, filtering and bottling.
he needs to develop food safety documentation -

i think the greatest issues are going to be quality of fruit etc, with physical contamination being the main concern (i'm presently ignoring the ABV% issue - and dealing with this separately)

cleaning and sterilising of equipment will be fairly critical also, as well as the bottles that he's putting the product into

pest control, etc

anyone got any other ideas?

any help much appreciated

Dear Eurohygiene,

Personally, and speaking from a viewpoint of ignorance, I would first validate the process itself by the customary methods.

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi Eurohygiene

Needless to say you should refer to the principles of HACCP and conduct a detailed study of the process, product and inputs. This will drive you towards the correct identification of significant hazards and their ultimate control.

Having said that, here are some common issues which lead to market recalls of alcohol based beverages and should be part of your HACCP study and resulting food safety management programs

Glass fragments (If you are bottling in glass you need a very good control program)

Over/under use or non declaration of chemical preservatives e.g. sulphites, benzoic and sorbic acid etc

Incorrect labelling

Yeast and mould growth (particularly if citric fruits are used)

Patulin (mycotoxin)

Other areas that are important are the CIP system if applicable. The specification is critical if you are concerned with yeast growth fo example. You dont mention if pasterisation is part of the process which will determine certain controls.

There are of course others but the above have and continue to lead to market recalls so not a bad place to start.


George

Never mind all that; have they got any vacancies in the QC lab?
Sorry.