Help! Quality Issue bloated bottle with liquid marinade

Hello,

I have no previous experience with working with liquid marinades.. (a product made from water, fruit juice, Salt, spices, vinegar, and sodium benzoate)  We recently experienced an issue causing the plastic bottles they are packed in to be bloated which caused it to kind of explode.  We usually keep at room temperature but our warehouse is about at 75-86dF now in the summer.  Does anyone have feedback relating to this as to why its happening?

Thanks in advance.

sounds like spoilage organisms to me

review all your batch records and double check that everything was done properly

Also, what's your usual pH?  I'd open a couple more and check that too

If the pH isn't right, you may not have been able to keep all organisms at bay, they start to repopulate and change pH in the process

fruit juice and vinegar do not like warm environments.

Sounds like fermentation or spoilage to me as well. I would do a TPC and Yeast and Mold counts to see what numbers you are dealing with.  

Hi elvap,

As others have said, this sounds like classic spoilage - my guess would be yeast but worth doing the TVC/Y/M as others have suggested.

If it's yeast it'll also likely have a fairly characteristic smell, and depending on just how active the fermentation process is, you may also be able to measure a reduction in soluble solids / Brix content of the product.

Is it out in the market yet, or has it all been caught in your warehouse before shipping?

Just be wary that fermenting bottles can be a health and safety hazard once packaging starts splitting and caps start being fired off!

In terms of root-cause, it would be useful to know more about your product and process in terms of any heat treatment, filling conditions, pH etc.

Thanks everyone for the feedback!  Fortunately, the gallons were not used and were caught in time.  As far as our process, we do not Heat Treat the product and we fill the gallons from a large mixing blender.

I will be sending samples out for TPC/Y&M, the original samples (before assuming fermentation) were not high in TPC.  

Hi elvap,

OK, see how the micro results look.

Benzoate alone isn't really a kill-step, more an inhibitor for some growth. Certain types of yeast are more resistant to it than others, and both process hygiene and the overall product (ingredient micro loading, pH/acidity, micro at start of life) can be quite important controls for this type of product.

Unfortunately I've seen quite a few customers assume that the preservative will be a panacea but alas that really isn't the case!

If you've got retained samples it may be worth also checking the micro on the batch(es) of mango used just in case - given that this type of analysis is quite cheap and it saves another delay of a few days waiting for more results if the investigation goes that way...

Hello,

It seems fermentation occurs during storage. Your juice containing fructose fermented producing carbon dioxide gas that cause the bloating. Review you PRP. There might some lapses on cleaning and sanitizing and its validation.

regards,

redfox

You might want to run Anaerobic testing as well.

We had this happen in a cold fill relish. After much investigation it was found to be Zygosaccharomyces bailii, a spoilage yeast with high tolerance to low pH and high brix, also tolerant of sorbates.

Had to increase GMP and fill between 65-70.C

Thank you Karinrae.. 

Update: I tested the fermented product for Yeast and Mold and they were all < 10 cfu/gm. and the pH is at 3.12-3.15.  Did you mean when the cold fill relish was packed at 65-70 dF. and the yeast Zygosaccharomyces bailii grew?

This is the first time this happens and it could have been that the room was warmer than usual.  Did you end up testing the product for this specific Zygosaccharomyces bailii?  More information will be greatly appreciated.

We had this happen in a cold fill relish. After much investigation it was found to be Zygosaccharomyces bailii, a spoilage yeast with high tolerance to low pH and high brix, also tolerant of sorbates.

Had to increase GMP and fill between 65-70.C

we do not Heat Treat the product

 

And it permits microbial growth....Just my quick assessment but it sounds an awful lot like you're also subject to the acidified foods regs. Make sure you have a filed process if this product isn't in a completely refrigerated supply chain. If you do not or don't know what I'm talking about, you have bigger problems.

Our yeast & mould tests showed <10cfu as well, it wasn't until I did some research and found out about this particular yeast. Once tested under specific conditions it showed up on the micro.

Hi, Elvap.

Is the production a continous one or is this batch type? IS the whole batch affected or certain part of the batch only? IF a certain part of the batch (systemic) then it could be there is some lapses in the processing that was not followed as planned (e.g sorbate not properly added or mixed, pH was not checked prior to proceeding with the process or time for transfer to storage where not properly followed). If sporadic, how is the condition of handling your plastic bottles before filling?

P.S. as mentioned above, sorbate is not really a kill step, but will aid the whole recipe design to inhibit growth.