Nitrite Cures for Meat
Hello! Does anyone have any experience or manufacture Nitrite cures for use in the meat industry? We are a small spice company and I was contacted by our state ag department about how the cure we produce is being used by various mom and pop shops in our area but they are not keeping proper documentation on hand. So I obviously want to be agreeable with the state department of ag but I'm not sure my company can really police that our customers always get the correct documentation unless they request it, which they are not. The state is also asking how we know we are following USDA standards. Unfortunatley, the original creator of our cure blends is no longer with the company and did not really keep a record of how he came up with the specs. Is there someway you can get the specifications verified by USDA? Any help would be appreciated!
Send your current product to the lab for testing, and then check if it meets whatever USDS corresponding standards. Secondly, RE: documentation on hand by your customers - it's their responsibility to have it.
Um-legally is it your responsibility to police your customers?
Sounds to me like to state inspector is purposely trying to push your buttons
https://meatscience...., and up to 625
As long as your spice blend keeps within the attached link, you are complying with USDA
Do you ship intra state?
I am more than happy to comply with regulators, but only when they don't over step their bounds.......i think i smell a rat here
Yes it's a sticky situation. Basically the state hasn't been reviewing these meat shops HACCP plans properly so now if they start enforcing I'm going to get bombarded with requests and these products have a 5 year shelf life so it's going to be a lot of letters getting handed out. But I did want to see if I could figure out some kind of offical verification that our nitrite specifications are correct. We are also hoping to switch to in house testing instead of sending to a 3rd party. So I didn't know if there was someone who could review our specifications and give us a stamp of approval. Thanks for the attachment it has a lot of good information!
If you want a quick and dirty PERMANENT solution------------send your blend to a certified lab that specializes in food. They will analyze your product and then can issue you a letter regarding the regulations and whether or not your product (applied as directed) is within the allowable limits.
Then you can write a letter that says:
"When used as directed, we at ACME spice guarantee our product meets USDA regulations for allowable nitrites" or something like that .
If you never change your blend again, you never need the test done again!