Pasteurization Validation of non-dairy products
Hello everyone.
I need some help. I am trying to figure out if there is any information about the time and temp of HTST pasteurization of non-dairy yogurt and non-dairy liquid products. I know the PMO has the temperatures for fluid milk and other dairy products and the use of the alkaline phosphatase test is used in pasteurization validation of dairy products. Is there something like this test for non-dairy products? I have thought about sampling the white mass after pasteurization sending the sample out for a third party lab testing for the biological hazard organisms that are called out for the raw ingeridents.
Hi Maureen, welcome to the forum. We're also manufacturing dairy and non-dairy yogurts, and our HTST parameters are the same. I'm not familiar with US regulations regarding this, but in Canada we're following the CFIA DEIM Chapter 11 HTST Pasteurization Tasks (though, DEIM's been replaced by SFCR and is used only for reference). We're not testing for ALP as we're buying pasteurized milk and doing double-pasteurization. Our verification testing is only on finished products for TC, E. Coli and Y&M.
It is widely practiced in the dairy world if you process dairy and non-dairy the pasteurization parameters for the dairy products are more than sufficient for non-dairy products. Non-dairy products have a more muted pathogen risk profile as compared to dairy.
The one parameter to evaluate is the total solids. If you look at the PMO pasteurization temperatures there is a reference to minimum time and temperature based on the total solids content of the product. The higher the total solids the higher the temperature and more time required. I can't recall the specific limits, but it is in specified in the PMO. If you have a non-dairy item that is in that total solids range I would use that limit specified in the PMO. You should be fine. To do the further work assess the normal pathogens relating to the ingredients used in the non-dairy products. They should be same / similar to dairy, but if not go to the FDA bad bug book and see what is specified for time / temperature to achieve a kill rate of that pathogen.
I'm guessing, most non-dairy will be salmonella or e.coli which both are easily killed with normal pasteurization time/temperatures for dairy.