Storage of Butter

Hi all,

on transport of butter there are clear international accepted temperature conditions. But legal requirements for chilling?

Do you have legal requirements for temperture requirements in storage of butter? In Germany < 10°C is very common and is also labelled in 250g g packs.

We are a biscuit manufacturer using a lot of non-frozen butter (25 kg blocks wrapped in blue plastic foil) ervery day. Before use kneading) the butter has to come to 10- 15 °C. Once a week we received a truck of butter (temperature at delivery 4°C). Part of the delivery will be transferred to a room with 15°C for temperature adjustment, what takes some days (5 - 8 days). Is this still storage in the legal sense or conditioning?

What is the standard shelf life of butter a 4-6°C, what at 9-10°C in your country? Do you have heard about 2y shelf life at these temperatures?

What are the most important microbial risks? For me it is the growth of moulds, but from the auditor's point of view it is bacterial growth and toxin production (high water activity, 18% of water) depending e.g. on droplet size. He uses a microbial modeling to calculate the shelf life at 10°C and 15°.

I couldn't find any software which allows these kind of calculations for butter as substrate, only with lab media.

Thanks in advance for your input

Rgds

moskito

Dear Moskito,

Is the product real butter or is it margarin or vegetable fats?

In the Netherlands, and I assume the same rules apply in Germany, is legally stated that butter is an emulsion of type water in fat with a milk fat content of at least 80% and maximum 90%.

You could ask your supplier or the producer of the butter for advice on storage conditions.

The specification of the product can also be important. Perhaps salt is added.

Temperature requirements I found on specifications are < 7 ^oC.

Question: do you store the products at 15 ^oC or do you consider this as a tempering process?

Hi Moskito,

The shelf life of butter at refrigerated temperatures is 3 - 6 months (salted butter being longer). Frozen butter has a shelf life of a year plus.

The process you are referring to is 'tempering'. You may find some useful information but not everyone will temper their butter in the same conditions. I would suggest you take microbiological samples of the butter up to the maximum tempering time at the maximum temperature.

The risk will also be dependent on the loading before you temper the butter.

Regards,

Tony

Hi all

thanks for the responses. Today my definition of the process is tempering, but I am not sure about acceptance by authority. Temperature during transportation is fixed. Or could I start tempering already during transportation (not more than 2 days). Our supplier told us "No", because the transfer of risk is at our ramp.

Rgds

moskito