Pasteurized Canned Refrigerated Crab Meat
Hi everyone,
My company is currently canning and pasteurizing Blue Crab meat. When we send our crab meat to a third party lab, the QA/FS Manager at my company has noticed that it is not being evaluated for C. botulinum. There are some email interfaces about how we should ask to have it evaluated for Thermophilic Anaerobic Sporeformers. On the third party lab's website, it looks like they evaluate for C. perfringens, and C. species in general, but nowhere does it state C. botulinum explicitly. If our meat is being analyzed for C. botulinum, overseas, shouldn't we also test for it here?
I looked for articles and policy to help guide me to make a decision, but all of the literature/FDA HACCP pages specify only modified atmosphere packaging and vacuum packaging, not refrigerated canned meat.
Can someone please point me in the right direction to help me make this determination: to test for C. botulinum or not to test for C. botulinum in pasteurized, refrigerated, canned and cupped blue crab meat.
Here are the sources I was looking at.
Incidence of Clostridium botulinum in Crabmeat from the Blue Crab - PMC (nih.gov)
Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance (fda.gov)
TIA!
Helen
Hi Scampi,
Yes! I looked at that as well. The forum explored validation studies however, and I am not interested in that aspect. I know our cans go through a retort process and a validated F factor. But I am interested in post-processing random sample validation, or if we need to extend the shelf life on our product.
There is a great thread here
Testing for c. botulinum is not straight-forward, which is one of the reasons why one mainly rely on process validation for botulinum safety. Which analysis are being done on your product overseas? I would probably test for sulphite reducing clostridia instead, which gets you a few others too, and if you have them, you also need to review your process for botulinum safety.
Hi everyone,
My company is currently canning and pasteurizing Blue Crab meat. When we send our crab meat to a third party lab, the QA/FS Manager at my company has noticed that it is not being evaluated for C. botulinum. There are some email interfaces about how we should ask to have it evaluated for Thermophilic Anaerobic Sporeformers. On the third party lab's website, it looks like they evaluate for C. perfringens, and C. species in general, but nowhere does it state C. botulinum explicitly. If our meat is being analyzed for C. botulinum, overseas, shouldn't we also test for it here?
I looked for articles and policy to help guide me to make a decision, but all of the literature/FDA HACCP pages specify only modified atmosphere packaging and vacuum packaging, not refrigerated canned meat.
Can someone please point me in the right direction to help me make this determination: to test for C. botulinum or not to test for C. botulinum in pasteurized, refrigerated, canned and cupped blue crab meat.
Here are the sources I was looking at.
Incidence of Clostridium botulinum in Crabmeat from the Blue Crab - PMC (nih.gov)
Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guidance (fda.gov)
TIA!
Helen
Hi Helen
What are your operating temperatures, water activity and pH of the product?
Also verify what test they are doing overseas. I think it's a C. species test. It is not easy to test for C. Botulinum explicitly unless you are ready to part ways with a couple of bucks.
If your validation is good, this is enough confidence for control.