4 replies to this topic

[solrac]

Hi.

 

Here is the scenario.

 

We blended a 250lb materials, 25% is coconut sugar. I decided to wiped it down, sanitize and test the blender flap for tree nuts. Results came back negative. After the test, we will be blending another 250lb of the same materials minus the coconut sugar. Someone told me that I made a wrong decision by not doing wash-rinse-sanitize. I explained that we run for only approximately 3 hours, the blender is stainless steel, we wiped down and sanitized, it is visually clean and I tested it. 

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thank you.

[012117]

Hi, CV.....

 

Protein is what made up of allergen, understanding this, wipe - sanitize may not be sufficient to remove protein. Normally, it is with application of hot water  - then thorough drying may help remove as much trace protein possible. However, since you are making powders, you may also need to be cautious in some spots where "powder" may accumulate making negative results in swab to be "false negative".

 

In many regions, coconut is not part of the list of allergen. While understand that from the US, it is a requirement, you may also want to consult your swab provider if the specificity of the swab also include coconut during the validation or qualification of the swab.

 

Tks

[Vinish Vijayan]

Test kit use for verification need to be specific for the tree nut - coconut allergen. You can confirm the same from the kit brochure which will detail the allergen under consideration. It would be better if you would plan and scheduled it the other way - initially going for blend without coconut sugar and then with coconut sugar. 

[smgendel]

As previously mentioned - your concern should be for the presence of coconut protein.  You should check your coconut sugar to see if it has protein. If there is no protein present in the sugar then you don't have an allergen problem.  If there is protein present, you need to test with a kit that can specifically detect coconut protein and your testing needs to be validated.  

[solrac]

Hi.

 

Thank you so much for all your responses.

 

The plan didn't go as planned. :-(