Good afternoon,
my company produce Frozen pizzas and we prepare our own sauce.
The sauce is just a blend of canned tomatoes, basil, salt.
We buy the basil from a distributor certified SQF for storage and distribution who just told us that the basil is not pre-washed.
Considering that the tomato sauce has a pH < 4.5 and our product is a ready to cook frozen pizza, do you think we should wash the basil?
We mix 1.5 bunches of basil with 600 oz of tomato sauce.
On our HACCP assessment we say that pH of the sauce and freezing won't let pathogens grow plus the product is going to be cooked.
Physicals and chemical risks: visual check prior use to mitigate physical risks and we buy from a certified supplier in order to get a product that respect chemical residue requirements pre-harvest.
What do you think?