SOP for RTE with multiple production process steps
Hi Folks,
I was wondering if anyone had any info on writing an SOP for an RTE that will require multiple steps in production, ie... Euthenasia>Eviseration/cleaning>formulation>cooking>cooling>packaging.
In a perfect world, we would have a continues process from start to finish but unfortunately, we only have a small space to process our product. It will all have to be done in the same room but in stages.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
:uhm:
Blopes----are you going provincial or federal inspection and what species...meat is my wheelhouse
Canadian Food Inspection Agency - Newfoundland & Labrador.
We are trying to get certification to process Cooked EEL (possible in future, other species of fish)
ok, CFIA is probably going to tell you that you have 2 choices
1. Slaughter clean and chill ONLY on say Monday and Tuesdays with a full sanitation each night; then Wednesday Thursday and Friday can be processing (if the eel is ok to process after sitting for that many days of course) and assuming you have enough cold storage space for all of the slaughtered eel (although they take up way less room than turkeys do!)
OR
2, chose one or the other if your building isn't big enough to do have physical separation between kill and process
The risk is that the raw fish (particularly the viscera) will contaminate the product that has already gone through a kill step
If I were you, and the species allows for it, I would write the SOP for the entire process as kill on day 1 and 2 and process the rest of the week.....that way there can be a full sanitation post slaughter to ensure any pathogenic bacteria from the viscera have been removed. Every RTE plant I have been in has a physical separation between evis and processing regardless of if it ships raw or cooked. I think you will have real difficulties with the bacteria load on the finished product if you try it any other way
Are you currently just an RTK facility?
I know fish guys don't have to follow FSEP, but I have to tell you if you implement it, you will be leaps and bounds ahead and it will make third party certification a snap (language is different but on closer examination one and the same)
Right now it's a newly renovated building. The processing area is only roughly 25ft by 20ft.
No production yet this is a startup. But I was hired to help write the proposal for their CFIA certification. I have 17 years experience in poultry RTE, with like you said segregation of each process, but this is my dilemma, I have to make this work somehow (for the time being)
Good luck......I would really push for segregation by days or 1/2 days.......as long as there is a full sanitation in between. I really can't see CFIA granting approval on the desk audit without physical separation (but they have surprised me before).
It's unfortunate that the fish regs appear to be willy nilly.....i'm a poultry person too and actually like some of the rigidity.........at least I always knew where i stood
What are the owners visualizing for the process?