Sourdough traceability
Hi,
I'm looking for advice on the best way to maintain traceability of a starter culture for Sourdough. We will be making and feeding the starter on site and a proportion of this starter will form the main dough mix.
Due to the nature of sourdough starters, a proportion of the starter will be held back and fed in order to use for the next days production. So a small percentage of the original starter culture will always be present in each batch.
We use traceability software for our other production but due to the nature of feeding/keeping some starter back I'm wondering if this part may be best traced manually.
Thanks
Are you able to start new starter when you change the flour lot? It will be the greatest risk
Then you can attached a single lot # to each batch of starter and use it until it's gone
I understand that part of sourdough is the age of the starter, but this would be the cleanest way to trace it
Hi,
Many thanks for your response. Yes I think that could be an good option for us. It would allow a "break" in in the event of an issue arising rather than having the same starter in use indefinitely.
That's been a great help, much appreciated.
"in the event of an issue arising..."
Bread pun!
Bread pun!
HAHAHAHA
I have no idea why, but I was thinking about this exact issue randomly just the other day as I made a sandwich... I know guys who make sourdough at home, and they keep a little "pet" starter living in their kitchen for months at a time. I remember thinking this would be a pain to track if commercial sourdough bakeries wanted to do the same. I like the idea of tying it to each new lot of incoming flour.
I worked for a bakery and they used a starter that was from the 90s. To my surprise no auditor ever had an issue with it, I went through 8 audits and it was never brought up. So, I am curious as to what your solution would be.
I'm thinking that we will have to maintain traceability on the flour for the starter feeding rather than the initial starter as the initial starter will be so diluted after just a few days production that it will be basically negligible.