Hi all,
My head hurts and I need help! Is there any legislation which states how fast food needs to be cooled down. We have a product which is quite thick and is over 100 degrees celcius when it come from the kettle and it is blast chilled overnight before the next production stage. An auditor told us a few years back it needs to be down to temperature within 90 mins so we splashed out a lot of money for a blast chiller that we were promised would do the job. The company failed and the quickest time they could achieve was 4 hours to cool below 8. We have approached several companies who can not do it in the 90 minuites either. The prodcut can not be frozen as it causes quality issues. I have searched the internet high and low but I can not find any solid leglislation with maximum time ranges. Does this exist? The closest I can find is "As fast as possible"
I have read a thread on this site from 2010 where someone stated that cooling should not exceed 6 hours and product should be down to 21 degrees celcius in the first 2 hours and less than 5 degrees in the next 5 hours. the link in his comment does not work so I cant determine if this is fact or old information etc.
I have read somewhere that a scientific risk assessment can be used to cover products that fall out of the temperature ranges but wanted to make sure we are not breaking the law if we take this approach. It is looking more and more like we will not be able to produce this product.
Can any of you provide links or pint me in the right direction. I have read so many EU regulations that I could cry