Mushroom Standard Industry Testing
Hello I am looking for any resources on standard industry testing in the commercial mushroom processing industry.
We get IQF mushrooms and since FSMA I am starting to have suppliers want me to sign off on their ingredient that we do a Kill step and that the product is now considered RTC ready to cook vs RTE ready to eat.
Any information or resources to check out would be appreciated.
Regards,
This depends on the spec you purchase against.
If the IQF needs to meet a RTE specification it is up to the suppliers to ensure this happens & you would enforce this by supplier audits to ensure there is a step at the supplier that renders the IQF RTE.
If the material is RTC & you apply a heat step yourself to render the product RTE you would need to show your HACCP with the validated kill step.
The IQF spec should reflect the appropriate microbiological standards expected & should be signed by yourselves & the supplier
In Canada, mushrooms are considered NON RTE and therefore if you're using them, there must be a kill step somewhere along the line. Mushrooms packed fresh for the grocery store are still considered NON RTE, but the responsibility lays with the consumer.
All i know for sure is mushrooms seem to fall into some strange category of both RTE and NON RTE
I mean heavens, lots of people put raw into salads..........so no kill step there!!!
My assumption here would be that the FDA also considers them NON RTE