Is Cooling Necessary after Hot Fill
The Paste (plant origin only & shelf stable) is hot fill in pouch and cool immediately by submerging into cold water tank. Hot fill is a CCP and cooling is an OPRP for the current HACCP plan. There was no time limit for cooling currently where it got question.
There was no regulatory or parameter specification setting on cooling to be done after hot fill while I browse through the internet. If cooling in cold environment necessary, can it be done just by putting at room temperature and let it cool down naturally? If it is necessary, any specific time and temperature?
Is the cooling step included in your risk assessments? There should be reasons for every step. My only guess could be that maybe it's got nothing to do with the food, but might be the packaging that needs to be cooled immediately? Maybe check the TDS of the pouch.
I also found this old post where the OP says they only cool the sauce "to reduce quality loss".
Hi unba709,
The need for cooling will be dependent on the formulation of the product, for example if it contains preservative or is pH protected.
As it is ambient stable is would suggest the formulation is such that cooling is not necessary. I do note that someone has stated that it may be to preserve product quality, this is possible if you also controlling the time the paste is held hot before filling.
I find it a bit strange that you have categorised the cooling step as an OPRP but have no parameters (time/temperature) for the cooling process?
Kind regards,
Tony
What does your scheduled process say? Assuming you have one
Have you got a validation specific to your hot fill process? If so, does it call out the cooling step? I'd say you need to stick to all steps as listed in your validation if you have one.
If not, I'd check your records to see if the previous authors of your program have a reference as to why the cooling step was deemed necessary. If you end up wanting to remove it, you could do some validations on your own and determine if there's a loss in quality/taste or increase in possible microbiological concerns.
I can say I worked for a 3rd party dry steal sterilizer, and the validation for our process allowed for ambient cooling without affecting the guaranteed log reduction. It might be okay to change your process, but you'll want some sort of proof behind such a change in your HACCP.
The cooling step is written in the risk assessment as to create vacuum condition only stated temperature to be maintained without the holding time. Glass bottle could create vacuum by ambient cooling, but I'm stuck with measuring vacuum in pouch if there's a method for it?
Previous OPRP definition in ISO 22000:2005 is unlike the importancy as of current ISO 22000:2018. Hence it's sad to say there's no previous reference stored for the control set.