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