Determining shelf life of chocolate brownies

I am carrying out organoleptic testing on chocolate brownies and am at P+25. The taste, texture, aroma and mouthfeel remain excellent. Some are topped with jam or marmalade which is baked with the brownie. Should I do micro testing as well?

Hi Loucox,

 

:welcome:

 

For due diligence purposes you should be demonstrating that the product meets specified micro limits at end of life.

 

Regards,

 

Tony

Hi Loucox,

 

I would suggest that good practice would be to initially perform a procedure to distinguish between safety/non-safety criteria from a shelf-life POV. For example, as per the Decision Tree on Pg 14 of attached file.

 

DEFRA guidance on date labelling.pdf   295.54KB   214 downloads

 

Then implement yr shelf-life SOP prioritizing on the, shelf-life relevant, non-safety factors (which already identified).

As per Tony’s post, i would also acquire some micro. data as given in yr Product.Spec. Presumably you have already, provisionally, evaluated yr proposed finished product with respect to its PS.

 

PS - Welcome to the Forum !

Just out of interest, how many samples would you recommend testing for micro to show "due diligence" for shelf life?

 

I am hoping to conduct some trials of sandwich micro levels at end of shelf life after storage at different temperatures, but I'm not sure how many tests/samples are considered adequate.

Just out of interest, how many samples would you recommend testing for micro to show "due diligence" for shelf life?

 

I am hoping to conduct some trials of sandwich micro levels at end of shelf life after storage at different temperatures, but I'm not sure how many tests/samples are considered adequate.

 

I would imagine it will depend on the "specifics" . As suggested in previous post. And possibly the NZ interpretation of "due diligence"

 

Just out of interest, quite detailed analyses for chilled RTE sandwiches exist  where L.mono is the focal species.

I would imagine it will depend on the "specifics" . As suggested in previous post. And possibly the NZ interpretation of "due diligence"

 

Just out of interest, quite detailed analyses for chilled RTE sandwiches exist  where L.mono is the focal species.

Thanks Charles.

I have had problems finding data on this.  I tried to do general internet searches on sandwich microbiology but discovered that there is a lot of ELISA sandwich stuff (which I really wouldn't want to eat).  If you happen to know of a specific site with good info, I'd love to see it.  Then I can do some testing similar to what has been done elsewhere to show auditors that we have overseas data backed up by our own testing.  It is the start of a wrangle about safe temperatures on a short shelflife product vs sandwich quality.

And I would imagine that L.mono would be the main focus.

I will spend some more time surfing the net...

Thanks Charles.

I have had problems finding data on this.  I tried to do general internet searches on sandwich microbiology but discovered that there is a lot of ELISA sandwich stuff (which I really wouldn't want to eat).  If you happen to know of a specific site with good info, I'd love to see it.  Then I can do some testing similar to what has been done elsewhere to show auditors that we have overseas data backed up by our own testing.  It is the start of a wrangle about safe temperatures on a short shelflife product vs sandwich quality.

And I would imagine that L.mono would be the main focus.

I will spend some more time surfing the net...

 

It will depend on the specific interest  but can try this material -

 

http://www.ifsqn.com...nes/#entry40513

Hi Loucox

For this type of bakery product, assuming a shelf life of around 28 days and would do the test in duplicate

micro test on a weekly basis with a test 2 days before end of expected shelf life, one at the end of shelf life and one after the date.

For the test after the date there are different schemes of deciding the date,

you can go for 2 days after the expected shelf life or expected shelf life plus 20%

 

Typical tests would be E coli, Yeast & Moulds, Salmonella

 

The key is the water activity, which should be very low in your product

 

rgds

Hi IanR,

 

Thks yr input.

 

For the test after the date there are different schemes of deciding the date,

Perhaps you could elaborate on this comment.

 

I deduce you are (somehow) basing yr shelf life on quality related microbiological factors such as plate count.