Are cooked sauces low care?
I work in NPD a small sauce manufacturers (cook chill sauces and cold process mayonnaise)
The factory has been BRC audited as low care accredited AA
There are no water or PH controls in the recipe formulation of cooked/chilled sauces and cook temperatures are to 85 degrees max held for 10 minutes. Ph values are above 5
There is no blast chiller and sauces take many hours to chill to below 5 degrees.
The product isn't filled/portioned until cold and is sold with shelf life of up to 5 months into retail outlets.
The only CCPs are the cook and metal detection.
I am formulating new recipes with PH of below 4.6 to try to mitigate risk of spores multiplying and adopting hurdle technology.
I am facing in house opposition as we have historical micro results (refrigerated only-not stress) that suggest our process is supporting safe product despite high PH and no control of water,
Our QA manager argues that our cook/chill sauces are not ready to eat/heat as the onus is on the consumer to cook product thoroughly.
I disagree. When you buy a sauce in the chiller you "heat" it. You don't necessarily give it a thermal "cook".
In theory if the instructions read "Cook to 75 degrees and hold for 2 minutes" would product be Low care in eyes of an auditor?
I work in NPD a small sauce manufacturers (cook chill sauces and cold process mayonnaise)
The factory has been BRC audited as low care accredited AA
There are no water or PH controls in the recipe formulation of cooked/chilled sauces and cook temperatures are to 85 degrees max held for 10 minutes. Ph values are above 5
There is no blast chiller and sauces take many hours to chill to below 5 degrees.
The product isn't filled/portioned until cold and is sold with shelf life of up to 5 months into retail outlets.
The only CCPs are the cook and metal detection.
I am formulating new recipes with PH of below 4.6 to try to mitigate risk of spores multiplying and adopting hurdle technology.
I am facing in house opposition as we have historical micro results (refrigerated only-not stress) that suggest our process is supporting safe product despite high PH and no control of water,
Our QA manager argues that our cook/chill sauces are not ready to eat/heat as the onus is on the consumer to cook product thoroughly.
I disagree. When you buy a sauce in the chiller you "heat" it. You don't necessarily give it a thermal "cook".
In theory if the instructions read "Cook to 75 degrees and hold for 2 minutes" would product be Low care in eyes of an auditor?
Hi Puzzled,
If yr process is designed to produce a RTE finished product, this should define its "status" as stated in the Product Specification and presumably with respect to the labelling requirements.
afaik, the status of "low care" does not exist in a BRC context.
Maybe see if yr product/process matches any of the high/low categories in attached BRC6 document -
brc6 - Understanding High care and High risk.pdf 589.79KB 30 downloads
(see pgs 15/19 et seq)