1 reply to this topic

[KBMB]

Hello all,

 

We are a medium sized bakery manufacturing cookies, crackers and bread-sticks.  We are looking to add a couple new products.

We are looking to add baguettes that we will slice here and toast and then oil and add seasoning in a tumbler (new equipment).

I am understaffed and totally overloaded. Any advice on what king of risks I will need to address and validations that I will need to complete on this new product and new piece of equipment would be greatly appreciated.

 

How does oil and seasoning affect shelf life when it will not be further processed?

What kind of micro testing needs to be conducted and does it have to be conducted before shipping?

What kind of packaging is best suited for this type of product?

Does a tumbler used for seasoning with oil (sunflower oil?) need to be ATP tested before use?

 

I anticipate there will be some necessary changes or additions to our current program where we clean and sanitize the same way for all equipment and products and test twice a year on random pieces and rotate.  We test for allergen validation of sanitation once a year on random equipment rotating.

 

Any help, advice, suggestions, direction or references would be so greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

KBMB

[SoupsNStuff]

Without knowing anything else about your current programs or more details on the product/process, I can't offer much beyond some starting points.

 

Any advice on what king of risks I will need to address and validations that I will need to complete on this new product and new piece of equipment would be greatly appreciated.

 

Risks, product: new ingredient hazard analysis, new supplier approvals, new allergens

Risks, equipment: add to HACCP flow, train sanitation, preventative maintenance, check for places bacteria could hide

Validation, product: depends on CCPs determined from hazard analysis

Validation, equipment: sanitation validation, construction validation (ensure area where installed is deep cleaned and swabbed for Salmonella/Listeria)

 

How does oil and seasoning affect shelf life when it will not be further processed?

 

Generally, toasting something and lowering water activity will help, but it depends on what those ingredients are, how the packaging is, etc. Are your seasonings "clean"? Like were they irradiated or otherwise treated and you can get COA with low micro counts? 

Check with your local lab for a shelf life study.

 

What kind of micro testing needs to be conducted and does it have to be conducted before shipping?

 

Depends on your environmental monitoring and product sampling programs. What do you do currently with your product? Might be good to test each lot when starting out as a validation. 

 

What kind of packaging is best suited for this type of product?

 

What type of shelf life do you want? How much is the company willing to spend on packaging? What type of customer are you going for? 

 

Does a tumbler used for seasoning with oil (sunflower oil?) need to be ATP tested before use?

 

It doesn't have to be ATP, but sanitation of all equipment needs to be verified and validated. How you do that depends on your program/risks/capabilities.