Potassium Sorbate and Calcium Proprionate CCP Procedure

Hi Everyone,

 

Does anyone have a procedure, work instruction, etc for preparing and adding Potaasium sorbate or Calcium proprionate in a bakery? There is water in the mix and liquid egg for the batter and a small amount of water in the butter cream.

 

Available water is 0.90

 

I would appreciate any ideas or procedures.

 

Thanking you in advance.

 

RedMajor

Hi Redmajor,

 

Difficult to describe without more details but your procedure should be concerned with correct dosing (double check and sign off) and thorough mixing (time and speed of blender).

 

Regards,

 

Tony

Tony,

 

The fats are blended at high speed for a set, short, period of time then all the powders, excluding Potassium sorbate & Calcium proprionate, are added and blended for a set period then Potassium sorbate and Calcium proprionate are dissolved in water 50:50 by weight and are added to the mix with liquid egg and the remaining water. This is then blended on slow speed for 4 minutes/ until a SG within a fixed range is achieved.

 

Buttercream is mixed in a high care mixing room, butter, icing sugar, flavouring with preservative added in a 50:50 solution in water and is blended for a set period of time and SG is again verified.

The preservative solutions are checked and signed-off by a supervisor

 

Thanks,

Redmajor. 

I've only had limited experience with Potassium Sorbate (or fairy dust as we used to call it).
Is it used as a preservative in the bread or does it have another function?

Cazx

Hi Caz,

 

It is being used as a preservative in ambient cake to extend shelf life from circa 15 days to 28 days by inhibiting mould and yeast growth.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated?

 

redmajor

Well when we used it as a preservative, we treated it as an ingredient.

What rationale would you use for it's use to be a CCP? I know it's (potentially) extending shelf life, but I would have thought its addition would be a pre-requisite

Cazx

The preservatives definitely extend shelf life to 28 days plus the requisite safety margin.

 

However, tests without it have shown major mould growth and a proliferation in APC though no growth of pathogens during the shelf life.

 

Some food manufacturers I have previously managed have had the addition of preservative as a CCP (Safety / Legal limit / chemical hazards of excess preservative). 

 

Thank you for your help with this. Any other thoughts would be welcome.

 

redmajor

We used to use it for a large retail customer, and they were happy that it was a pre-requisite.

Y&M would be a spoilage issue rather than a food safety. I think if you can provide shelf life trial results, and demonstrate that it goes into each recipe, then why can't it be a pre-requisite?

Caz x

Thanks Caz. I will make it a prerequisite.

 

redmajor

Tony,

 

The fats are blended at high speed for a set, short, period of time then all the powders, excluding Potassium sorbate & Calcium proprionate, are added and blended for a set period then Potassium sorbate and Calcium proprionate are dissolved in water 50:50 by weight and are added to the mix with liquid egg and the remaining water. This is then blended on slow speed for 4 minutes/ until a SG within a fixed range is achieved.

 

Buttercream is mixed in a high care mixing room, butter, icing sugar, flavouring with preservative added in a 50:50 solution in water and is blended for a set period of time and SG is again verified.

The preservative solutions are checked and signed-off by a supervisor

 

Thanks,

Redmajor. 

 

Sounds good and this should be reflected in your procedures and records.

 

You may be asked to verify the levels in your product. You can also use mass balance to assist in this.

 

Not sure where idea of CCP came from? provided your controls are adequate I would not worry too much how it is classified anyway.

 

Regards,

 

Tony

Tony,

 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

redmajor