Extending shelf life of chilled cooked chicken and rice ready to eat meals based on a customer request
Hi members!
Our product is chilled cooked chicken and rice ready to eat meals. We have set 1 day shelf life use by date for the product for a long time. Now our customer wants us to stamp 2 days use by shelf life so they could have a bit more sales before new delivery come in the next delivery.
I know proper chilled food could be safe to consume within 7 to 10 days but do we need to inform our verification and do some paper work for it? Note that our packaging is not air tight sealed.
Much appreciate to any advice.
Wouldn't it be in your best interests to find out exactly how long the food can be kept safe if stored properly?
Hi members!
Our product is chilled cooked chicken and rice ready to eat meals. We have set 1 day shelf life use by date for the product for a long time. Now our customer wants us to stamp 2 days use by shelf life so they could have a bit more sales before new delivery come in the next delivery.
I know proper chilled food could be safe to consume within 7 to 10 days but do we need to inform our verification and do some paper work for it? Note that our packaging is not air tight sealed.
Much appreciate to any advice.
I assume NZ's "USE BY" is defined on safety parameters only.
My first question is as to how/why you decided on setting a 1-day current value ?
The 1 day use by shelf life had been set up long time since they established the business. I think they based on the Microbiology test that time, and my manager told me they put in fridge and eat after 3 days no one sick :)) Finally I think they decided based on "1 day shelf life is the minimum we should take for the shake of quality and safety"
At the moment we have testing on 1 day shelf life in ambient storage, but the test is to use in another project.
By the way I just saw New Zealand law is to prohibit business altered their shelf life. If we want to do so, we need to make application to the verification agency.
The 1 day use by shelf life had been set up long time since they established the business. I think they based on the Microbiology test that time, and my manager told me they put in fridge and eat after 3 days no one sick :)) Finally I think they decided based on "1 day shelf life is the minimum we should take for the shake of quality and safety"
At the moment we have testing on 1 day shelf life in ambient storage, but the test is to use in another project.
By the way I just saw New Zealand law is to prohibit business altered their shelf life. If we want to do so, we need to make application to the verification agency.
Hi Nancy,
Thks info. I think this is known as an (highly) Empirical Shelf Life.
I deduce the product does not use MAP.
I'm not in the RTE business but I anticipate that most labelled Use Bys are based on a specific study plus an applied reduction X to ensure a "safety" factor. X can be a trade secret IMEX.
JFI, an example is attached based on L.monocytogenes.
shelf life - 2 - Lm and shelf life - sandwich example simplified FINAL.pdf 54.48KB 21 downloads
The 1 day use by shelf life had been set up long time since they established the business. I think they based on the Microbiology test that time, and my manager told me they put in fridge and eat after 3 days no one sick :))
:yikes: I'm curious now what happened on days 7-10