Solutions for the Baked Goods Industry

In order for food manufacturers to be confident that the food they offer to consumers is safe, it is important to know how bacteria behaves in the event that it enters the processing environment.

Novolyze offer vital services in this area, by evaluating the inactivation of foodborne pathogens under various kinds of stress; such as heat. For producers of baked goods, knowledge of correct oven temperatures that effectively kill pathogens is integral to ensuring a safe end product.

IN-PLANT PROCESS VALIDATION WITH SURRONOV® SURROGATES

Novolyze offers surrogate organisms (SurroNov®), harmless bacteria that mimic the behavior of pathogens, to identify the precise conditions under which bacteria of concern will be fully inactivated in the manufacturing process. These surrogate organisms enable tests to be carried out in industrial conditions whilst ensuring safety at all times.

In the case of baked products, SurroNov® surrogates will usually be mixed with the raw dough ingredients, such as flour, water, etc, at the start of the process. This inoculated dough would then be distributed in the oven, using the regular processing parameters, and finished product samples would be collected at the end of the process to look for survivors and calculate microbial lethality.

SurroNov® has been widely used by manufacturers of baked goods, with a specific focus on soft-baking parameters. This was the case with La Tortilla Factory in California, US, who needed validation of their processing procedures to comply with FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations.

Novolyze’s SurroNov® dry Salmonella surrogate was a natural choice and enabled them to run several validation tests on numerous production lines, which confirmed the target reduction of Salmonella in all results. Subsequent runs of the validation tests using lower oven temperatures also provided the company with useful ‘thermal mapping’ of their ovens for their R&D teams.
This case study illustrates the benefits afforded by SurroNov® surrogates, not only in enabling companies to tick the box of regulatory compliance, but in instilling the confidence and peace of mind that comes with knowing your products are safe for consumers. For further details on Novolyze’s SurroNov surrogates and to appreciate the full breadth of application they offer, please read this article.

BRAND NEW DIGITAL SOLUTION

It is recommended that revalidation be carried out when any changes are made to the manufacturing process, including new instruments, cooking times, etc. However, Novolyze has introduced a novel digital solution to the market that enables manufacturers to keep abreast of their production processes in real time. The newly developed Novolyze Platform collects, stores and analyses oven data, thus creating a 24-hour food safety security guard for your oven. Time and temperature data enable calculations to be made that validate/verify your Salmonella kill step process, using existing mathematical models such as AIB International’s Baking Process Kill Step Calculators or data already available from Novolyze.

The interactive tool takes the recorded data and calculates the total process lethality (eg, 5 log) for Salmonella. The generated report provides supporting documentation for the FSMA’s validation and verification process.

The Novolyze Platform represents a unique digital solution that enables food manufacturers to have real-time control of their microbial intervention steps. This ability to react quickly to fluctuations in the processing environment is due to the technology’s fast analysis of the processing data using algorithmic calculations. The data is collected by various means, according to the individual processing setup, and automatic alerts are then sent, for example by email, in the event of any deviations.

The device then builds user-friendly reports that afford production and QA managers a comprehensive overview of the entire operation: including conformity reports for each processed batch; information about equipment performance; and system benchmarking.

To learn more about how Novolyze can assist in your baking processes, contact us here.