Ingredient shelf life

Dear All,

Do you ever have ingredients which go out of date before you use them?
Do you use them past their BBE?
Are you legally allowed to use these?

I'm rewritting my procedure on handling out of date materials and would be interested in your views,

cheers

Dear All,

Do you ever have ingredients which go out of date before you use them?
Do you use them past their BBE?
Are you legally allowed to use these?

I'm rewritting my procedure on handling out of date materials and would be interested in your views,

cheers

Hia
in my previous employment we did very occasionally use items past their date , but only if date a day or two out, and if product smelt etc ok, but all our ingredients were cooked again and therefore the micro results would have indicated if there was a problem. We also sometimes used to contact the supplier to verify that the out of date ingredients were safe to use
Sue

Hia
in my previous employment we did very occasionally use items past their date , but only if date a day or two out, and if product smelt etc ok, but all our ingredients were cooked again and therefore the micro results would have indicated if there was a problem. We also sometimes used to contact the supplier to verify that the out of date ingredients were safe to use
Sue

PS: would just like to add, previously i was in a junior position, and the desicion to use them was never mine, now im in senior management I WILL NOT be using out of date products, this will be done by specifying the minimum shelf life required on delivery, stock control, and purchasing only what is required

It would be legal to sell a product to consumers if it had passed its best before date (provided its quality was ok and it was not injurious to health and it was not misleading, etc.) so I would say the same applies in food production. You could use ingredients past their best before date provided that the food produced was of the expected quality.

You would have to be careful from a legal standpoint if you were making any descriptions that could become misleading - e.g. 'made from fresh/high quality ingredients' - but again, the effect of the use of out of date ingredients would have to be apparent in the finished product.

It goes without saying that use by foods are a different case entirely (but I said it anyway )

Thanks for the feedback so far.
We sometimes use out of date ingredients (low risk artificial colours / flavours) but only when the supplier has retested the ingredients and given us an extension of shelf life. I say "only" but I should say "in theory" as when a production machine is stopped we have found that sometimes the production manager would authorise the use before the test results are back. I'm looking for some legal backing to our current policy of no use without an extension. For prepackaged goods for sale we do have a law preventing anyone but the manufacturer altering the shelf life coding.

You could use ingredients past their best before date provided that the food produced was of the expected quality

Jane, I believe that this would be covered under the Food Safety Act but is there anything more specific (as with prepacked goods)?

Are you legally allowed to use these?

As long as our HACCP plan allows us to do so.
I believe there are no rules, actually we haven't any rule at least from a legal standpoint.
It depends both on the ingredient and the use in the process.

We all know there is a subtle difference between "Best Before" and Expiry Date" or at least the perceptions given are different anyway.....

Generally, a product shelve life is validated against substantiated evidences and reviewed during audit by the food auditors as acceptable evidence in compliant to ensuring the intended food safety level as satisfactorily supported to ensure public health.

Now, why would anyone risk using expired ingredients to make end products when ingredient suppliers have already performed shelve life tests which invariably point to the direction that such expired ingredients may be suspiciously dangerous or may have / likely to have food safety compromise in the form of deliberately altered food safety level in END Products.

IMO, using expired ingredients reverts back to "End-Product-Testing" procedures before product releases and defeats the purpose of CCP Control Programs. It also means that the end product's "expiry or before before dates" are no longer reliable and if not a food safety issue, certainly a quality issue.

I think the new ISO 26000 would point to this direction as well in the form of social responsibility.

Jane, I believe that this would be covered under the Food Safety Act but is there anything more specific (as with prepacked goods)?

Yes, it is the Food Safety Act - It's a very interesting point and not something I have come across before. There are no specific requirements I can think of which apply to the use of ingredients/additives past their best before date.

I'm looking for some legal backing to our current policy of no use without an extension.

From a legislative point of view, I'm thinking - if you didn't have an authorised extension and you went ahead and manufactured product IF there was a problem you would have great difficulty demonstrating due diligence. Depending on the effect of the ingredient/additive you could end up with one or more of the following offences:
* selling or possessing for sale food that does not comply with food safety requirements (Section 8)
* selling food which is not of the 'nature or substance or quality' demanded by the purchaser (Section 14)
* falsely describing, advertising or presenting food (Section 15)
I think that your policy of no use without extension would stand up as part of your due diligence (plus adhering to it means you are unlikely to commit an offence anyway).

Hope that helps. I'm not aware of a case where this has been tested but will let you know if I come across anything.

Everynow and then, we would be asked to test for the quality of ingredients that had expiried, sometimes, as far as 1 yr ago... and then approve them (of coz, by out Manager).

Well, when there's a MOQ (Min Order Qty) on a certain ingredient, plus the fact they are produced as a promotion item, we can never finish using this item... Thus it would sit there in the warehouse for ages, until it's past it's shelf-life and for us to re-evaluate the quality and whether the Food Technologist can substitute this item into a new formula or not...

Sigh.. I just wish our Manager won't do this extension of shelf-life so often.

IMO there is nothing wrong in using "old Products" as long as you have verified that its still good. There are a lot of products out there that can withstand retention of quality profile to meet customer's requirements. Assuming we have validated that chemical and pathogenic hazards are not an issue, a quality set-up validation criteria would be an approach that I will take. Afterall, products after post expiry date does not mean that it is not safe to eat but rather may lost its qualities eg gelling system, aroma retention etc (provided again hazards are duly examined and are excluded risks)

Charles,

Don't forget Franco's recent topic "Mandatory Best Before Date in USA and/or Canada ?"

In some cases the BBD is required by customers where it is inappropriate/irrelavent.

I recenty encountered a problem in Cyprus. The company raw material specification stated that eggs must be fresh.

How would you determine an egg was fresh? Can you trust the laying chicken to use the correct date on it's stamp ....

... or are the eggs stamped after laying (ie just before despatch) by an employee?

If so how long after laying?

for how many days after laying would the egg be classed as fresh?

With so many questions is it any wonder I don't eat eggs (well that and my allergy!)

James

Another angle on this; lacquered / laminated flexible packaging for sealing to food containers is given a shelf life by suppliers; usually 12 months (to cover their proverbial backside). In practice I've regularly seen material more than 5 years old used - after thorough testing. Provided the verification methods are fit for purpose I don't see any problem in using BBD expired stuff - it's just common sense.

Regards,
Simon