Food safety of products that are not sealed properly

Hi there,

   We have products (condiments) that were not sealed properly (ie. caps were continuously twisting). What food safety risks are there to the product aside from spoilage bacteria?

Thank you,

Product tampering

Introduction of pathogenic bacteria

unless of course your containers have another tamper evident seal of some sort

Customer dissatisfaction should also be considered

Product tampering

 

Introduction of pathogenic bacteria

 

unless of course your containers have another tamper evident seal of some sort

 

Customer dissatisfaction should also be considered

We had a TE seal but the lids themselves were not properly sealed. We have not had any complaints so far but we had to withdrew product even from 6 months ago.

Also molds/yeasts due to moisture condensation under the cap.

Also molds/yeasts due to moisture condensation under the cap.

Is there a specific pathogen that would grow under these conditions?

Was the TE seal over the cap or under????

This is the fallout from the Tylenol recall that happened in the 80s

https://en.wikipedia...llion in 2021).

Have you implemented seal checks?

You should have a check where the seals of X # of containers are verified  X often

Are you just trying to understand the why, or are you wanting to push back on CFIA?

Is there a specific pathogen that would grow under these conditions?

  We would need to know more specific information about the products, like aw, pH, processing method etc

Have you sent the product to a lab to perform any testing? 

Was the TE seal over the cap or under????

 

This is the fallout from the Tylenol recall that happened in the 80s

https://en.wikipedia...llion in 2021).

 

 

Have you implemented seal checks?

 

You should have a check where the seals of X # of containers are verified  X often

 

Are you just trying to understand the why, or are you wanting to push back on CFIA?

TE seal is over the cap.

We're trying to get all of this info from our co-packer specifically their capping system to understand the root cause of all of this. 

  We would need to know more specific information about the products, like aw, pH, processing method etc

 

Have you sent the product to a lab to perform any testing? 

All of the products are cold-fill with pH range of 3.5-3.9. One of the condiments has a Brix of 29.

Yes, we're sending samples to the lab to be tested

Ah, now I understand

Don't forget to make very detailed financial logs to invoice to your co-packer

so this issue with CFIA is probably adulteration--because the only thing keeping the seal on is the TE band which is really easy to remove

i refer you back to the Tylenol recall-----that is what began all the TE seals in food and pharmaceuticals and why salad dressing and ketchup are so hard to get into

C botulism would be of great concern at that pH in a cold fill process PARTICULARLY when the seal has failed---the introduction of any bacterium could alter the pH enough to start rapid growth

Hi there,

 

   We have products (condiments) that were not sealed properly (ie. caps were continuously twisting). What food safety risks are there to the product aside from spoilage bacteria?

 

Thank you,

One more risk not mentioned would be foreign material introduced to the container from the cap itself if this misalignment or over tightening resulted in the threads being stripped from the cap or container.