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Foreign object removal steps for pulpy product

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beersafety

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Posted 03 March 2022 - 07:51 PM

hi there!

 

we are experiencing an issue with a new product that is unfiltered and is similar to pulpy orange juice.

 

we use an inline 2mm screen to catch foreign objects (reduce the risk) for any unfiltered product we produce, however when we run pulpy unfiltered product, it clogs up out screen. if we remove the screen, we can no foreign object control for any unfiltered product.

 

how do you reduce the risk of physical hazards (gasket material, etc) if the acceptable screen size requirements(canada) prevent you form running pulpy product?

 

what controls can i put in place if 2mm is too small? how does tropicana do it? lol

 

thanks!

Liz

 



Scampi

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Posted 03 March 2022 - 08:46 PM

Hey Liz, this article is probably helpful except the rules are different in the usa then here

 

https://www.fda.gov/...-guidance-first

 

Is this product ready for retail or is it or further processing? 


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beersafety

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Posted 03 March 2022 - 08:49 PM

thank you!

 

i will have a look. 

this product is ready for retail. a hard lemonade with pulp.



Scampi

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Posted 03 March 2022 - 09:17 PM

The other alternative (depending on where you are) are rental MDs    

 

That way you could (in theory) remove the filter or at least use one with a larger mesh to run that product

 

You get to decide what the risk is 

 

Historically, if you've never caught anything that small in the filter, you most likely never would, and may  feel comfortable changing


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beersafety

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Posted 08 March 2022 - 02:36 PM

thank you!

our process is very low risk for metal contamination. my concern is more more gasket material and other potential objects. also our blending station is open product area. we have all the controls for the ears in place, but i still feel like that alone is not 100% coverage, with the element of human error and all. 

if i'm not worried about metal, do i have to be so strict about the mesh size? can i risk assess that a 7-8mm screen is used on lemonades is sufficient? 

 

thanks!

Liz



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Posted 08 March 2022 - 03:37 PM

7-8 mm is actually really large

 

This is where it gets tricky, if you have listed 2-99 year olds as your consumers, than you must take into account the choking hazard limits for children

 

Is there a way perhaps you can run an air line to the filter so you can blow it out parodically?

 

 

Alternatively, you could probably rent x-ray inspection if your in a large urban centre (or close to it)


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beersafety

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Posted 08 March 2022 - 04:20 PM

Thank you! I appreciate your feedback



pHruit

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Posted 08 March 2022 - 04:27 PM

What sort of "pulpy" are you dealing with - e.g. is this lemon juice with added cells ("juicy bits") or simply juice that has had no filtration/sieving so has quite a lot the natural coarse pulp still present?

Do you buy the lemon juice in, or process it on site yourselves?

And, assuming you're not adding cells i.e. not trying to achieve a "with bits" style texture, how pulpy do you want the drink to actually be - is it just a bit so that it retains a cloudy appearance, perhaps a bit of sedimentation at the bottom of the bottle, so it looks/feels a bit more like natural lemon?

 

In terms of sieve sizes, I've seen 4mm used for juice "with bits". If it's just suspended coarse pulp then I'm surprised that 2mm is blocking so easily, but it could be very coarse pulp, and the geometry of your filter/pipework might have a bearing on this.

If you're buying the juice in then you could look at slightly changing the spec, as you can still get juices that are cloudy (i.e. have some pulp content) without it being excessively large in quantity or particle size, to the extent that it should fly through a 2mm sieve without issue.



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beersafety

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Posted 15 March 2022 - 04:27 PM

Thank you!

we use lemon juice concentrate and other juice concentrates for the lemonades and iced teas. for the teas it's a tea extract used.

oddly enough we cannot find any company that makes a 2mm screen for food plant, so we have went way tighter. we are trying to procure a 1mm now but its three weeks out. in the mean time our inline filter is collapsing and we are at a halt. 

 

so, how did the company that used the 4mm risk assess that it was controlling the risk? if we could go even larger that would be ideal.

 

thanks!



pHruit

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Posted 16 March 2022 - 09:09 AM

It's going back a way and it wasn't one of my own HACCP plans, so I'm struggling for details I'm afraid. My recollection is that it made reference to the classic FDA "Adulteration involving hard or sharp objects" position on <7mm posing limited risk, combined with prerequisites for the line/site on brittle materials and engineering controls, and an additional prerequisite requirement on controls applied by suppliers of the components that couldn't be sieved/filtered to any significant level - for example orange/lemon/grapefruit cells, where it's impractical to filter, but these days can be controlled quite effectively using combinations of magnets, optical systems, centrifuges etc.

If you're not actually adding cells then I do think 2mm should be fairly workable. I'm surprised at the lack of availability, but it's the sort of thing that a decent local fabricator should be able to build in whatever grade of stainless you want, in very little time at all.





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