Should we calculate shelf life from pack date of from production date?

Hi All

Trying to determine how to get the best out the shelf life. Currently produce vegan pies, they are prepared baked and boxed on the same day.

Moving to a new site with high capacity blast chillers and holding fridges, in my mind we can hold product post bake for up to 4 days before packing, the questions is should we date the product from the day they were baked or the day they are packed? how does everyone in similar category manage this? I have tested product post bake at the new site and held in the chillers, and the micro post bake held in chillers is so far on day 12 very low TVC counts and nothing detected on other micro.

Thanks

W

Hi. I work in salad dressings. If we bulk out a batch to be bottled later, we do the shelf life from the date it was blended, not packaged. 

Micro growth is the least of your worries.  If you have a good chill / freezing system with little temperature fluctuations then you can have a long shelf-life internally.  With that, you need to make sure you have a good FIFO system in place.

If all of the above is good then there's no reason you can't do shelf-life from the pack date.  

Every frozen product I have worked with bases the shelf life on the date the product went into the freezer.

^^^^^Frozen mixes prepared by blending pre-frozen bulk stored items may be an exception.

What's in the pie ?

What is the shelf-life based on ? Intuition ?.

Vegan pies.

Shelf life has been based on micro analysis.

Generally, the first day of food production is considered the shelf life, because production and packaging are basically completed at the same time, so the difference between the two is not very big.

Generally, the first day of food production is considered the shelf life, because production and packaging are basically completed at the same time, so the difference between the two is not very big.

Not always though: for instance, we produce pressed yogurt which has 3 days between starting production and packaging. Shelf life starts from the day of packaging.

Not always though: for instance, we produce pressed yogurt which has 3 days between starting production and packaging. Shelf life starts from the day of packaging.

This is indeed a situation, I did not consider thoroughly enough, thanks olenazh.

I would argue it depends on the product - production is not always packaged on the same day it was made - what if you have multiple production days and one packaging day. 

Our program specifies the day it was cooked and then all associated records to that product made is traceable. We also produce bone broth that simmers over night is filled into containers - frozen then packaged. There is a 2 day difference from cook day to packing into boxes - if we have multiple days of production it gets confusing - so we set the production date as the indicator. (Also keeps our CFIA inspector happy!)

Hi All

Trying to determine how to get the best out the shelf life. Currently produce vegan pies, they are prepared baked and boxed on the same day.

Moving to a new site with high capacity blast chillers and holding fridges, in my mind we can hold product post bake for up to 4 days before packing, the questions is should we date the product from the day they were baked or the day they are packed? how does everyone in similar category manage this? I have tested product post bake at the new site and held in the chillers, and the micro post bake held in chillers is so far on day 12 very low TVC counts and nothing detected on other micro.

 

Thanks

W

I suspect that variations with locality will exist. Maybe particularly for Vegan Pie.

Sounds like a good question for yr UK / EHO.

I have had a similar product in my portfolio. We chose to calculate shelf life from when the product was taken out of the last production step (before cool down). We would consider the moment from cool down to be the start of the ''clock'' for micro growth.
We had strict rules for unpacked storage time (depending on the product same day or max. 48 hours). Which meant that production could work ahead but that it would not positively impact the shelf life if kept out of the final packaging.  

But t would really depend on what is ''pulling down'' your shelf life (Listeria M. is a big one for us).
If pathogens are no problem than it can be determined sensory and microbiological (lactic acid, TPC etc).