Hot fill, inversion and sterilization help.
Hi,
I hope people can help me, I've done some research but come up with conflicting answers.
My production site is looking at doing a completely new process of creating jarred products. We are looking into creating jars of curry sauces and also, new to site, jarred jams. I've never worked in a place with these processes but 1 member has briefly and they didn't use the UV sterilization process, as hot fill was at high enough temps. We are UK based.
At present the process we have discussed is as follows:
Glass jars into production - inversion for physical foreign bodies - UV sterilization - hot fill - lidding - ambient cooling.
Can anyone point me in the direction of if this process is correct, do we need UV sterilization if we are hot filling at around 95c for sauces and 105c for jams?
Do we need to invert after capping for sealing and sterilization?
Do we need a steam capper?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Hot fill/invert/hold will work for the jam
it will not work for the curry sauce, it will need to be water bathed after canning and lidding to ensure the geometric mean reaches a high enough temp to inactivate botulism
In reality, you should be looking for a process authority to give you a scheduled process to follow for all the canned products
Thanks for that, as far as I'm aware we don't have what you call process authorities in the UK.
How come it will only work for the Jam? Is it due to the temperature it will reach for the botulinum kill.
Hi ;)
Not sure if you are member of Campden BRI, but if yes, then email this for a free advise (I believe there are 3 free of charge) or alternatively you can buy
G80 Guidelines for the safe production of heat preserved foods (campdenbri.co.uk)
G51/2 Pasteurisation - a food industry practical guide (campdenbri.co.uk)
The best person there to talk to is About David Whittaker at Campden BRI or Gary Tucker - Contact a Campden BRI expert - how can we help?
You will need ;
CCP - Inversion and air blower (FB removal) (100-160mbar)
CCP - Hot fill (and pH & water activity, salt checks) G51/2 Pasteurisation - a food industry practical guide (campdenbri.co.uk)
Steam capper
Dud detector
Headspace pasteurisation
Dud detector
;)
Jam is generally due to the brix AND pH combo that allows for that
Even when I can at home, the only thing I don't water bath is sweet relish, because of the pH and brix
You don't really need a steam capper (very expensive) where I was, we had a water bath tunnel, water was at 185F (for pickles) and the jars travelled through as per the instructed amount of time and then cooled ambient.
Any jars that didn't seal, after a manual check, were removed (but that hardly happened there)
The idea is that you need scientifically valid instructions for EACH product for EACH jar size
Jam is generally due to the brix AND pH combo that allows for that
Even when I can at home, the only thing I don't water bath is sweet relish, because of the pH and brix
You don't really need a steam capper (very expensive) where I was, we had a water bath tunnel, water was at 185F (for pickles) and the jars travelled through as per the instructed amount of time and then cooled ambient.
Any jars that didn't seal, after a manual check, were removed (but that hardly happened there)
The idea is that you need scientifically valid instructions for EACH product for EACH jar size
Thanks for that. We have seen a few places, one quite large scale, that doesn't use water baths or steam capping to seal the lids just inversion. I think this is the way the company wants to go so just need to get any information for that now.
Hi Hagandaaz,
Are you hand capping?
At our facility, our main category is jams and jellies. Our process is as follows:
- Inverting/dumping glass on trays to remove foreign materials - Pouring jam at 190F - Capping (by hand) - Allow to cool for 24 hours.
As a CCP we cook all jam/jelly to minimum 200F. For years, we inverted jars after capping to sterilize the lid and actually ran into more issues, such as the cap being "messy" inside. We discussed with our supplier (Massilly) and they let us know all caps are sterilized at their facility. So we removed inverting after capping and it has greatly improved our efficiency and 0 complaints about mold. Since we hand cap, we include in our training how to effectively cap a jar to ensure a tight seal and that the cap is secured on the threads of the jar.
If you remove UV sterilization, sanitary/hygienic GMP's would be key. If caps come in that were already sterilized at your suppliers facility, use GMP's to ensure they stay clean. The temperature of the jam is high enough to kill bacteria that might be present.
Hope this helps!