Keeping Hummus Production
Humming Along:
Many people take for granted that each day the food they eat will be safe. This is a result of stringent regulations imposed on the food industry, combined with the diligent efforts of food processing companies to comply with those regulations.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. The fact is, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that foodborne disease causes 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths in the United States annually. While the majority of these illnesses occur in foodservice establishments and in the home, food processing plants are not exempt from foodborne outbreaks and product recalls.
New challenges to the U.S. food supply have prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to adopt various food safety systems on a wider basis. These challenges include the increasing number of new food pathogens, the spread of bacteria and increasing public health concern about chemical contamination of food such as the effects of lead in food on the nervous system.
Another important factor is that the size of the food industry and the diversity of products and processes have grown tremendously--in the amount of domestic food manufactured and the number of foods imported. At the same time, the FDA, along with state and local agencies, has the same limited level of resources to ensure food safety.
Potentially hazardous foods (PHFs) such as fresh meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products may be contaminated with foodborne pathogens. Also, food ingredients, such as dry milk powder are considered to be potentially hazardous because reconstituted (water added) milk powder will support microbial growth. Fresh fruits and vegetables may be surface contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites and/or molds.
Programs aimed at reducing food health risks are constantly under development by the FDA. These programs are intended to bring a higher degree of reliability and accountability than the spot-checks of manufacturing conditions and random sampling of final products on which food processors have traditionally relied.
One of the FDA’s programs focuses on preventing hazards that could cause food-borne illnesses by applying science-based controls, from raw material to finished products. Established for the seafood industry in 1995 and for the juice industry in 2001, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a comprehensive approach to food safety. (In 1998, the U.S. Department of Agriculture established HACCP for meat and poultry processing plants as well.)
The FDA is now considering developing regulations that would establish HACCP as the food safety standard throughout other areas of the food industry, including both domestic and imported food products.
Another program, 21 CFR 110, is a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) in manufacturing, packing, or holding human food as described in the Code of Federal Regulations. Developed by the FDA’s Department of Health and Human Services, it is essentially a prerequisite program that supports HACCP.
While they exist as separate standards, HACCP and 21 CFR 110 complement each other. A factory with an inadequate HACCP plan that fails to adequately address a microbial hazard may produce a product resulting in foodborne illness. The same can be said for a factory with an excellent HACCP plan but inadequate GMPs, which may reflect poor microbial control of the factory environment. Both standards specifically refer to monitoring critical operational points and documenting these monitoring efforts. GMPs are outlined in 21CFR110, while HACCP is more specific relative to identifying the critical control points within that manufacturing environment using those practices.
While the food processors who have implemented HACCP and/or 21CFR110 are doing so not only to comply with the law and ensure product safety, they also realize that there are other issues at stake: these food processors are intent on presenting the cleanest, safest, and most efficient operation possible to the retailers that serve as the outlets for their products. Even if these guidelines were not mandated, retailers would likely breathe easier knowing they were conducting business with a food processor whose operating standards are likely to minimize problems at the consumer end.
The cost, both financially and otherwise, of a problem can be devastating. Even one case of foodborne illness can destroy the reputation of both the food processor that produced the guilty item and the retailer that carried it. The worst outcome, obviously, would be a product recall: besides the potential health hazard, it is estimated that the cost to recall a product is as much as five times the cost of distributing it. Consequently, adherence to one or both of the aforementioned standards is less of a requirement and more of a way to help ensure corporate survival.
Within both standards, the use of process controls is positioned as a vital element in each program’s overall success. In discussing these process controls, the most basic parameters to observe are temperature (both of raw materials and completed products), ambient temperature, relative humidity (moisture), and pH (acidity or alkalinity).
Temperature control is essential for processing food. Ingredients received should meet quality standards (appropriate temperature and exhibit no signs of spoilage); be stored at the proper temperature (to minimize growth of microorganisms) and, if heat treated, be processed to the recommended time and temperature (to reduce spoilage bacteria, destroy foodborne pathogens, and inactive enzymes). Most bacteria that cause illness thrive between 41°F (5°C) and 140°F (60°C). Consequently, “Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold” is a good rule of thumb for food safety.
Food scientists measure the acidity of a food based on its pH value. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with ph 7 being neutral. Any pH below pH 7 falls in the acidic range while those above pH 7 are considered to be in the basic range; the lower the pH reading, the more acid the food. In order to preserve foods with acidity, the regulation requires the pH to be 4.6 or below. At these levels, toxins formed by the deadly organism causing botulism are inhibited.
This naturally begs the question, “What is the most effective and accurate method for measuring and recording these various parameters?” There are an almost unlimited number of process control instruments that will perform these functions, with some performing at a higher level than others. Besides choosing the actual instruments, however, it is also essential to select the areas of a food processing operation in which they will be used to best advantage.
As an example, we can look to Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods, Inc. Based in Massachusetts, Cedar’s is a leader in the production and distribution of hummus and other Mediterranean food items. Currently, Cedar’s employs a number of instruments from Extech Instruments, one of the world’s largest suppliers of test equipment. Extech has supplied Cedar with a 42510A IR gun; a 407907 RTD Thermometer; a 445703 wall hygrothermometer; and a 39272 fold-up thermometer with adjacent probe.
The 42510A Wide Range Mini IR Thermometer, a compact, non-contact thermometer allowing personnel to take scheduled spot checks of walls, processing vats, and other interior surfaces to verify that the particular food processing room is always at the predetermined processing temperature. It is also used to ensure that the company’s transportation vehicles have been sufficiently cooled before loading food for distribution.
The Heavy Duty 407907 RTD Thermometer with PC Interface is used to test product temperature, ensuring it is either below 40 degrees or above 140 degrees. A 445703 Big Digit Hygro-Thermometer measures relative humidity (10 to 99% RH), as well as temperature. Other instruments are related to relative humidity and temperature; one of the pH meters also ensures that Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods, Inc. has put all the right spices into many of its recipes.
While Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods, Inc. manages to effectively monitor these parameters with its current instrumentation, the company continues to work with Extech to upgrade the efficiency of these measurement procedures. In large part, the improvement of these procedures would fall into two categories, including:
• Eliminating the need to stop production and bring samples to the quality control laboratory; rather, there are more advanced instruments such as the portable PH100 ExStik® meter that will allow personnel to take measurements at the point of production, resulting in less production disturbance and significant time savings.
• Using data logging instrumentation to record data in a comprehensive internal database allowing the user to create a permanent record which can ultimately downloaded to a computer. Two such products under consideration include the RH520 Humidity plus Temperature Digital Chart Recorder to monitor the processing rooms on a 24/7 basis and the 42582 Printing/Data logging IR Thermometer for sequentially recording the scheduled temperature checks of the processing rooms.
HACCP and 21 CFR 110 – as well as the instrumentation required to assist companies in adhering to them – translate to a substantial financial investment for food processors. However, the financial ramifications of not making this commitment have the potential to be far more devastating.
