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Charles.C

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Posted 31 July 2014 - 12:13 AM

Dear chiagrower,

 

The FDA publish their inspection program (somewhere). I beieve it varies product-by-product and I'm not familiar with yr area unfortunately. Some specific items have additional restrictions due to local "sensitivity" reasons.

 

The FDA also have MOUs (memoranda of Understanding) with certain countries such that they will accept results of inspections done at origin.

 

In theory, if no MOU, IMEX FDA are rather uninterested in data generated at origin, they treat every input as a random lot unless there is a track record for that importer/specific product/origin. If the latter, sampling density may be increased, to a worst case scenario of 100%.

 

As per previous post, most import agents are well aware of these factors. It's their job. :smile:

 

Rgds / Charles.C


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


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chiagrower

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Posted 01 August 2014 - 05:03 PM

Dear Chia grower,

Heat treatment works well for most herbs, spices, seeds in our facility.

 

Don't you think that if you apply a heat treatment like say steam to the chia seeds, you will change its physical qualities and it will become something like a gel? Do you really think steam will not physically alter the chia seeds?



chiagrower

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Posted 04 August 2014 - 01:41 PM

Dear chiagrower,

 

The FDA publish their inspection program (somewhere). I beieve it varies product-by-product and I'm not familiar with yr area unfortunately. Some specific items have additional restrictions due to local "sensitivity" reasons.

 

The FDA also have MOUs (memoranda of Understanding) with certain countries such that they will accept results of inspections done at origin.

 

In theory, if no MOU, IMEX FDA are rather uninterested in data generated at origin, they treat every input as a random lot unless there is a track record for that importer/specific product/origin. If the latter, sampling density may be increased, to a worst case scenario of 100%.

 

As per previous post, most import agents are well aware of these factors. It's their job. :smile:

 

Rgds / Charles.C

 

Dear Charles.

 

What do you think about applying heat treatment to the chia seeds? Don't you think it will alter their physical qualities? I understand it could be ok for other things but for chia seeds? If you use hot steam, probably the moisture will make the seeds become like a gel and if it is just heat, the chia seeds will become sort of cooked which is not the idea... What is your opinion on this case?

Thank you,

 

Hernan / chiagrower



Charles.C

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Posted 05 August 2014 - 05:33 AM

Dear Charles.

 

What do you think about applying heat treatment to the chia seeds? Don't you think it will alter their physical qualities? I understand it could be ok for other things but for chia seeds? If you use hot steam, probably the moisture will make the seeds become like a gel and if it is just heat, the chia seeds will become sort of cooked which is not the idea... What is your opinion on this case?

Thank you,

 

Hernan / chiagrower

 

Dear chiagrower,

 

Not my area unfortunately but the internet suggests workable processes are available, eg -

 

http://www.foodprodu...chia-seeds.aspx

 

http://www.ift.org/f...px?page=viewall

 

Rgds / Charles.C


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


chiagrower

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Posted 05 August 2014 - 06:25 PM

Hi All / Charles,

 

I just called the president of BI Neutraceuticals (http://www.binutraceuticals.com/) and he told me they use dry steam to sterilize their chia seeds. He told me that nobody except them use this. He said that even big chains like Whole Foods, they do nothing to sterilize the seeds and that they sell them raw and without any process. He was saying that in the future, everybody was going to use this dry steam system because of all the possible lawsuits that will happen in the future. Supposedly, he developed this steam system and invested like a million dollars in it... 

I also heard that in Paraguay they were also using steam to sterilize the chia seeds, but I thought that maybe that was because Paraguay has a very tropical and wet climate and therefore, the moisture levels are very high and bacteria can develop, so the only way to be safe was to somehow sterilize it using steam... Where we grow are chia is very dry at the time of harvesting, so maybe that is why we don't need this kill step?



chiagrower

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Posted 05 August 2014 - 09:10 PM

Dear chiagrower,

 

Not my area unfortunately but the internet suggests workable processes are available, eg -

 

http://www.foodprodu...chia-seeds.aspx

 

http://www.ift.org/f...px?page=viewall

 

Rgds / Charles.C

 

 

Hello Chiagrower,

        If you are a grower it is best to follow GAP at farm levels and GHP,GMP at industry levels.Generally seeds of any type have moisture levels below 8% and will not support microbial growth. Only highly abused seeds at farm levels and industrial levels will be contaminated with pathogens.

 Therefore first give your raw produce with proper sampling procedure (sample size say 1,2 or 10 tonnes) to outside accreditated lab for pathogen testing and then to see whether to reject the product  or not.

Normally treatment to remove pathoigens from raw produce is very harsh and may deteriorate the quality of the product/seeds.

for e.g.say steaming/heat drying of seeds until  seed reach an internal temp of 75 degree centigrade .

or traetment of seeds with sodiun hypochlorite with 100-200 ppm chlorine and then with fresh water treatment to remove chlorine and then again drying of seeds to remove moisture (moisture below 8%).

All these treatments will affect the quality of the produce.

U.V. traetment is used for Water /Environmental air  and it rays cannot penetrate seeds .However it can be used as GMP in plant.

 

 

The idea is that bacteria need a certain water activity to grow so if your product is dry they will not be able to. If no water is added to the seeds during the processing you perform on them (bagging/sorting?) then they could be considered to be relatively safe provided that: The plants they were grown from were not contaminated (testing of the water used for the chia growing for Salmonella / E. coli), your machinery was not contaminated (taking swabs from your equipment, like from hopper joints or crevices in zone one [direct product contact]), and your packaging materials were not contaminated (CoA from the packaging supplier or swabbing some packing materials). You would then need to analyze those swabs in a lab for the target bacteria. If none show up then you know that run of product is safe. I package dry powder products and we have no kill step, since heat or chemicals are not possible to use (sugar + heat = gooey sadness :( ) and rely on the quality of our raw/packaging materials and SSOPs to prevent microbial contamination.

 

This slide show illustrates the same issues: http://www.foodprote...11Ede/Betts.pdf

 

The focus on low Aw foods is receiving uncontaminated raw materials. If you perform testing on your raw materials and your end processing equipment you should be able to show that your product is safe for consumption as a RTE.

 

Here is another reference from the University of California: http://ucanr.edu/sit...and_Sanitizers/

 

They use 200ppm Chlorine for actual produce sanitation (and also list the 20,000ppm used for seeds for sprouting) but I imagine this procedure would then need a water rinse afterwards because 200ppm chlorine needs a rinse for food contact surface sanitation. This article also talks about the difficulties/shortfalls of sanitizing fresh produce.

 

Finally this article: http://www.foodsafet...e/#.U8WDAPldXas

 

It talks about UV treatment using a tumbler to expose large amounts of fresh produce to UV rays that could kill your target bacteria (E. coli / Salmonella). You may want to explore this UV option further. Irradiation treatments is probably not a good bet because of people wielding pitchforks. There isn't enough evidence to prove that irradiation treatments aren't dangerous (even though there is evidence that says they are not dangerous :yeahrite: ) so they are definitely dangerous. They could also have a negative effect on your product like melting it (maybe  :death: ).

 

Hope something here helps!

 

This BI Neutraceuticals company developed their proprietory system called "Protexx HP process", which uses heated, dry steam to ensure the material is free of pathogens. They don't want to sell the system, so they are the only ones that can sterilize seeds like this. The owner of this company says that with this system, te physical qualities of the seed are not altered... So, that means everybody in the whole world will have to pass through his sterilizer because everything else is not safe enough? He said that big chains like Whole Foods and all the others are suicidal in just relying on moisture level control...



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GSH19

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Posted 05 August 2014 - 09:21 PM

I have a quick question about CCP at dry herbs & spice processing environment. We mill, sterilize, blend and package them. The only CCP I can think of is metal detector. Can someone please give me some information about it.

Thank you.



Charles.C

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Posted 06 August 2014 - 07:53 AM

I have a quick question about CCP at dry herbs & spice processing environment. We mill, sterilize, blend and package them. The only CCP I can think of is metal detector. Can someone please give me some information about it.

Thank you.

 

Please clarify "it" ?, ie what do you wish to know ?

 

Rgds / Charles.C


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


chiagrower

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Posted 06 August 2014 - 03:56 PM

I have a quick question about CCP at dry herbs & spice processing environment. We mill, sterilize, blend and package them. The only CCP I can think of is metal detector. Can someone please give me some information about it.

Thank you.

 

How will you sterilize?



GSH19

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Posted 06 August 2014 - 08:12 PM

Hi Charles,

Are there are any sample HACCP models for spice/herbs processing/packaging facilities? So far, the only CCP I can think of is metal detection. We check for pathogenic bacteria  and other extraneous materials. Is allergen material a CCP?

Thanks.



Charles.C

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Posted 06 August 2014 - 10:42 PM

Hi Charles,

Are there are any sample HACCP models for spice/herbs processing/packaging facilities? So far, the only CCP I can think of is metal detection. We check for pathogenic bacteria  and other extraneous materials. Is allergen material a CCP?

Thanks.

 

I am fairly sure there are some model herb/spice haccp plans on this forum (somewhere).

 

It may depend on yr process chart but (probably) the sterilization step is  the main CCP together with metal detector. If allergenX is intrinsic to  the raw material/finished product, typically controlled by a labelling CCP.

 

Rgds / Charles.C

 

 

 


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


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Posted 07 August 2014 - 10:52 AM

Hello Chiagrower,

Please visit the web-site-http://www.napasol.com/



chiagrower

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Posted 07 August 2014 - 05:29 PM

Hello Chiagrower,

Please visit the web-site-http://www.napasol.com/

Thank you Sushil.

I can see that it looks like this Swiss company is the only one that produces this machine. It says that is a very recent invention, so that means that all the raw seeds that have been sold and eaten in all the past years, didn't have any sterilization process... I mean, all the big chains of supermarkets, like Whole Foods and others never sterilized their chia seeds... They just have been using moisture control and testing as their only kill step.



Charles.C

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Posted 08 August 2014 - 03:39 AM

Thank you Sushil.

I can see that it looks like this Swiss company is the only one that produces this machine. It says that is a very recent invention, so that means that all the raw seeds that have been sold and eaten in all the past years, didn't have any sterilization process... I mean, all the big chains of supermarkets, like Whole Foods and others never sterilized their chia seeds... They just have been using moisture control and testing as their only kill step.

 

Dear chiagrower,

 

I daresay you are correct.

 

Unfortunately,  recent events may well be forcing a widescale re-think ?

 

"Necessity is the Mother of Invention", aka a business opportunity.

 

Rgds / Charles.C


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


chiagrower

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Posted 11 August 2014 - 06:08 PM

Dear chiagrower,

 

I daresay you are correct.

 

Unfortunately,  recent events may well be forcing a widescale re-think ?

 

"Necessity is the Mother of Invention", aka a business opportunity.

 

Rgds / Charles.C

 

Well, considering that mostly nobody uses this steam sterilization process, it is probably a question of doing the moisture level control and testing in a very responsible manner. The salmonella detection in chia seeds happened in June 03 this year 2014. We can't say it happened so many times. In fact, in all these years, nothing happened and nobody used the steam machine because it was not even invented yet.

There are other suppliers for this machine in Holland, Germany and even in the US like: http://www.imtechven...s-and-Herbs.pdf





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