Are there any food safety standards or guidelines for Freeze Dried Fruits and Vegetables?

Hi All, 

Would like seek for advice if there is any food safety standard, guideline regarding to freeze dried products?

We recently plan to move in the freeze dried fruits for repacking.

We are ISO 22000 & HACCP company.

Is there any reference guideline that can refer and help to access the hazards of the products from the supplier?

Thanks.

I would start with the AW (water activity) studies you can find research on and perform your own in-house validation of the method. Test incoming product, intermediate if you're paranoid, and finished goods. Freeze dried goods (FDG) are typically very low-risk so make sure to perform your risk analysis for your food safety plans/HACCP justification. The best thing would be to use outside and in-house (if possible you might not have a microlab) testing to validate current scientific methods on FDG.

Hi All, 

 

Would like seek for advice if there is any food safety standard, guideline regarding to freeze dried products?

We recently plan to move in the freeze dried fruits for repacking.

 

We are ISO 22000 & HACCP company.

Is there any reference guideline that can refer and help to access the hazards of the products from the supplier?

 

Thanks.

example specification -

spec. freeze dried strawberries.pdf   840.59KB   139 downloads

I used to work in FD fruit/veg & biggest risk is from the suppliers supplying contaminated raw materials, so ideally they should be GAP accredited because freeze drying has no CCP and therefore quality of raw materials & adequate sampling of incoming raw materials is very important.

By the time you receive the ingredients disinfection isn't really possible with frozen IQF - unless you have UV systems or similar?.

I'd recommend that you risk assess your suppliers as some of them won't have CCPs either (for example it is difficult to wash soft fruit & apply a disinfection step such as chlorine wash).

Be aware that soft fruit is a risk for Norovirus & hep A too, so your supplier controls should reference that too

 https://www.fda.gov/...harmful-viruses

I used to work in FD fruit/veg & biggest risk is from the suppliers supplying contaminated raw materials, so ideally they should be GAP accredited because freeze drying has no CCP and therefore quality of raw materials & adequate sampling of incoming raw materials is very important.

 

Thanks for the information!  Are there no CCP for freeze drying all products, or just fruit & veg?  I am testing FD meals for our homeless clients, which would include meats and other proteins.  I am trying to find anyone who has written a HACCP plan for meals, or for proteins, for guidance.

Depends heavily on the protein and entire process whether there are CCPs or not

And some freeze dried fruit/veg will have a CCP, like the flume water used to wash, it should be treated water (PAA or chlorine) and the concentration may be a CCP, again it depends on the process of the individual plant

Thank you for the speedy reply...I think the difference is that I operate a commercial kitchen, rather than a plant.  We make food already, with its own HACCP plan, to be frozen into individual meals for our food bank line.  We take part of those meals, and freeze dry them.  So far the testing has been great and we think this will be a great way to reach folks living on the street to access healthy food.  Many of these meals include meat, like shredded chicken, and ground beef.  My challenge is to write a HACCP plan for the freeze dried product, and I am not sure where to start.  So far, I haven't found anything online that I can crib lol.  I am fairly certain I will have to measure the water activity of the meals, and keep a water activity log for each recipe.  

Hi Teresa,

I could assist with some of the haccp stuff that's troubling you, have several years out poultry experience. Just a question are you PQCI certified by chance?

Thanks!

I used to work in FD fruit/veg & biggest risk is from the suppliers supplying contaminated raw materials, so ideally they should be GAP accredited because freeze drying has no CCP and therefore quality of raw materials & adequate sampling of incoming raw materials is very important.

 

By the time you receive the ingredients disinfection isn't really possible with frozen IQF - unless you have UV systems or similar?.

 

I'd recommend that you risk assess your suppliers as some of them won't have CCPs either (for example it is difficult to wash soft fruit & apply a disinfection step such as chlorine wash).

 

Be aware that soft fruit is a risk for Norovirus & hep A too, so your supplier controls should reference that too

 https://www.fda.gov/...harmful-viruses

Hi, could you explain why freeze-drying is not a CCP?

Thanks!

A CCP is designed to reduce or remove a hazard to an acceptable level

all freeze drying does is alter the state of the item---it is not a kill step or application of microbial control

maybe the water activity is lowered be default, but the step is NOT designed to do that  it is a by product of the method

What @Scampi said!  We were granted our Process Authority letters about a week ago, and will begin making FD meals for our houseless neighbors next month.  

We have to reduce aW to <.59 for the food to be shelf stable.  So far, we've managed to get everything <.325.