7 replies to this topic

[jenky]

My company is seeking organic certification in the near future.  This presents a few challenges, but the biggest hurdle will be cleaning a dry, continuous production line prior to the organic production run.  I believe purging the equipment will be the best option.  I am looking for help in writing the purge SSOP - does anyone have experience in this area?  How much detail does the organic certification agency expect?  How do we prove that the purge process prevents co-minging of organic and non-organic?  Thanks!

[SQFconsultant]

What is the line used for prior to the organic run and what is the organic  (product, food, name.) ?

 

Is prior run GMO?

 

How will you segregate organic from conventional in production area and storage prior to shipping?

[jenky]

We will be running an organic nut butter and produce traditional (non-organic) nut butters on the same equipment.  Traditional nut butters contain ingredients derived from bioengineering.  However, these ingredients are highly refined so there is no BE DNA present.  We plan to have dedicated storage for the organic materials. 

 

My biggest concern is the purging process on the equipment itself since to disassembly and wet cleaning equipment is not practical from a food safety perspective.

[Ryan M.]

Depends on your equipment design and the line capacity.  Sounds like a product purge will be tough to defend because the equipment likely has some niche or harborage points that inherent of the design.

 

Is there anyway to schedule organic after a full dry clean?  Does a dry clean remove all nut butter residues from surfaces?

 

If you have different nut butter allergens and have a changeover procedure to prevent cross contact you can use this for conventional to organic.

Edited by Ryan M., 05 May 2019 - 04:04 AM.

[SQFconsultant]

I agree with Ryan, I don't see how a dry cleaning  would eliminate residue fully and an organic certifier is going to be looking really close at how your procedures/processes are conducted.

 

I am leaning to ozone cleaning- take a look at that.

[MunBin]

Having same problem in determining purging volume needed. any idea how to know the volume needed?

[Ryan M.]

What is your process equipment?  What type of product(s)?  If you shut down to clean and start up, you can use the amount of product purge at start up after cleaning as a starting point.  If you do this best to add a bit of buffer to it, such as 5% to 10% more than you think you need to purge.

 

Having same problem in determining purging volume needed. any idea how to know the volume needed?

[Chris347]

If it is any help, we process cocoa butter and have recently started doing organic product. We do not do any kind of cleaning since we have a closed system and moisture can cause food safety concerns. Instead we purge our line with "organic" product that is then stored separately and later used as non organic product. We did a volume calculation based on the size of our pipes and storage tanks that would be enough just to line everything. This has sufficed for our organic audits. 

 

Best regards, 

 

Chris 

 

My company is seeking organic certification in the near future.  This presents a few challenges, but the biggest hurdle will be cleaning a dry, continuous production line prior to the organic production run.  I believe purging the equipment will be the best option.  I am looking for help in writing the purge SSOP - does anyone have experience in this area?  How much detail does the organic certification agency expect?  How do we prove that the purge process prevents co-minging of organic and non-organic?  Thanks!