Low Acid Foods

The Food Processing Center Author

03/27/2018 Added

213 Plays

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Low acid foods that are high in moisture require special processing to render them shelf stable. In this lecture, you will find out what the FDA’s regulations are for processing commercially sterile food — such as canned foods. These processing conditions are applied to ensure the thermal inactivation of pathogenic bacteria, like Clostridium botulinum.

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[00:00:06.019]Okay, so, our next lecture in our science
[00:00:08.940]of safe food series is on the principles of low acid foods,
[00:00:12.520]and, again, I wanna kinda make a point
[00:00:15.740]that the previous lecture on acidified foods
[00:00:17.790]and this lecture on low acid foods,
[00:00:19.872]I understand some of you may not be producing
[00:00:23.460]these just yet, but this is gonna give you
[00:00:25.200]information to go to that next level.
[00:00:27.470]So, when you get to the point where
[00:00:28.810]you feel you wanna move on, this is where
[00:00:31.280]this information, I think, is gonna be very helpful.
[00:00:34.890]So, again, we have an outline.
[00:00:36.380]I'll touch mainly on some resources for home canning,
[00:00:39.598]some commercial canning factors,
[00:00:41.890]and a short summary at the end.
[00:00:46.050]So, I really wanna highlight that
[00:00:47.610]the USDA has an excellent website
[00:00:49.770]and an excellent resource of publications.
[00:00:52.039]They have the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning
[00:00:55.230]and it's fairly recent; they have the 2015 version.
[00:00:59.940]You need Adobe Acrobat Reader, I think
[00:01:01.980]most people have that on their computer,
[00:01:03.820]to download these documents, and there's also
[00:01:07.065]a print version that's located at extension
[00:01:10.343]at the Purdue extension website as well.
[00:01:13.680]So, if you don't like looking at the computer,
[00:01:15.270]you want something that's printed,
[00:01:17.250]you can go there and request that,
[00:01:20.200]but, again, excellent resource here.
[00:01:22.360]You have all these different guides
[00:01:23.710]just on the principles and then,
[00:01:25.970]different types of products that you can look at when
[00:01:28.530]you wanna get started, perhaps, producing these products,
[00:01:34.230]and this is what the document looks like.
[00:01:38.630]So, this is pulled directly out of
[00:01:40.880]that Principles for Home Canning document,
[00:01:44.702]and it's a really nice division on canning
[00:01:48.820]and food safety and where we need
[00:01:50.510]to be at to produce safe product.
[00:01:53.150]So, if we look at the top of this scale,
[00:01:55.380]they kinda have this red zone, I think that means heat.
[00:01:59.930]You need about 250, or excuse me,
[00:02:03.040]240 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and a pressure canner
[00:02:07.890]is needed for meat products and poultry.
[00:02:10.360]These are gonna destroy the spores of Clostridium botulinum.
[00:02:14.560]This is known as low acid canned foods, or LACF.
[00:02:19.220]When you're down here, 180 to 212, which is boiling,
[00:02:23.620]these are gonna destroy bacteria, yeasts, and molds.
[00:02:26.639]This is used for acidified foods.
[00:02:29.440]So, for acidified foods, you don't necessarily
[00:02:31.570]have to be under pressure to make the product safe.
[00:02:34.905]40 to 140, we have the danger zone.
[00:02:37.390]This is where the rapid growth of bacteria will occur.
[00:02:40.167]Once we come down to refrigeration,
[00:02:42.371]we'll have a slowing of the growth,
[00:02:46.280]and we'll have freezing that can stop growth altogether.
[00:02:54.850]I'll try to let you know, it was really just
[00:02:57.510]a diagram of acidified foods which is mainly
[00:03:02.270]going to be products that need to be processed by
[00:03:06.690]a water bath, or a pressure canner.
[00:03:09.210]Once you get down into the low acid canned foods,
[00:03:11.710]you can only use a pressure canner,
[00:03:14.579]and, again, what's gonna determine which type
[00:03:17.279]of procedure you use, water bath or pressure canner,
[00:03:20.950]is gonna be determined by that 4.6 pH.
[00:03:26.530]So, here, we have a diagram of a pressure canner,
[00:03:29.992]and this is, again, taken out of that USDA document,
[00:03:34.590]shows the different parts of the pressure canner
[00:03:37.286]and how to load it into the racks,
[00:03:39.945]if there's any fluid that's in the container,
[00:03:44.060]shows you those levels that it should be at.
[00:03:49.427]I really like this diagram, it shows
[00:03:51.620]the process adjustments at high altitudes.
[00:03:53.970]Obviously, if you're gonna be out in Colorado,
[00:03:56.510]you're gonna have different temperatures
[00:04:00.880]that you're gonna be looking at.
[00:04:01.840]At 10,000 feet the boiling temperature
[00:04:05.750]is 194, at sea level 212, okay?
[00:04:10.250]So, this document has charts, so,
[00:04:14.180]no matter where you are in the country,
[00:04:15.680]you can determine the safe levels to process your products,
[00:04:22.612]and this is just a screenshot from that document.
[00:04:26.930]I thought it was really nice that
[00:04:28.680]they actually have the type of pressure canner
[00:04:30.850]that you're using and a product,
[00:04:33.030]and this one is canned peaches,
[00:04:35.643]and, so, in this table, it tells you
[00:04:38.760]the style of pack, hot or raw, jar size,
[00:04:42.257]and then, it'll actually give you
[00:04:43.730]the process time based on your altitude.
[00:04:47.250]So, your process time of 10 minutes,
[00:04:50.989]your psi of your canner would be
[00:04:54.240]at six pounds if you're at 2,000 feet.
[00:04:57.150]If you're up at higher altitudes,
[00:04:59.180]then your pressure's a little bit higher.
[00:05:01.660]So, a very valuable document if
[00:05:03.750]you're getting into home canning.
[00:05:08.111]Now, for anybody that's interested
[00:05:10.180]in going into commercial canning,
[00:05:12.900]is there anybody that may be thinking about it?
[00:05:19.330]You might think about buying one of these systems (laughs).
[00:05:21.889]Commercial canning is covered under 21 CFR part 113.
[00:05:27.050]Over here, we just have a generic vertical retort.
[00:05:31.016]Over here, we have a water spray retort.
[00:05:33.560]We have this style down in our pilot plant.
[00:05:35.540]Actually, we have both of these
[00:05:37.280]styles down in our pilot plant.
[00:05:41.902]There's a company called Dixie Canner.
[00:05:44.380]They sell a lot of these types of canners,
[00:05:47.880]and I've seen these in small operations
[00:05:50.220]like, maybe, some small meat canning operations,
[00:05:53.250]but you can see the complexity greatly increases.
[00:05:56.770]So, one thing you're gonna have to have
[00:05:58.088]before you start doing more commercial canning
[00:06:00.500]is a steam source, because all of these retorts
[00:06:03.130]are gonna require a boiler and some type of a steam source.
[00:06:08.640]So, there's certain factors required
[00:06:10.300]for retail pressure canning operations,
[00:06:12.840]and I've listed some of those here
[00:06:15.870]just to kinda give you the flavor
[00:06:18.150]and the feeling of what needs to
[00:06:19.840]be done to go to this next level.
[00:06:22.420]So, you have four different parameters
[00:06:24.422]that would need to be verified for a canning operation,
[00:06:28.740]and I'm just gonna touch on these in this talk.
[00:06:33.650]So, a thermal death time test,
[00:06:35.960]this is where you're determining
[00:06:37.200]the heat resistance of microorganisms.
[00:06:39.530]So, depending on the food you're using,
[00:06:41.700]you have to know what type of organisms are in there,
[00:06:45.488]and what scientists will do is a study
[00:06:49.100]where they'll actually put organisms
[00:06:50.726]into some type of a container and put it into
[00:06:55.177]the canner or the retort, run it through,
[00:06:58.460]and then, see if your process is
[00:06:59.819]actually able to kill off those microorganisms, okay.
[00:07:03.180]So, these are specialized studies
[00:07:05.220]done in labs that are set up for this,
[00:07:07.740]and they'll give you a time and temperature relationship
[00:07:10.270]on how to kill those organisms.
[00:07:14.015]Anybody using a retort is going to have
[00:07:16.584]to do heat penetration tests on
[00:07:20.480]that particular piece of equipment.
[00:07:23.500]So, you're gonna be putting your containers
[00:07:25.870]with thermocouples embedded into the container,
[00:07:28.970]then, they're filled with product and put into the retort,
[00:07:31.642]and then, run through that system,
[00:07:35.600]and what you're gonna get out is a map
[00:07:37.720]of that heat penetration in the product
[00:07:40.240]to make sure you can heat every part
[00:07:43.730]of that product up to the proper temperatures.
[00:07:47.680]Another study that may be required when you get
[00:07:50.490]into commercial canning is an inoculated pack study
[00:07:53.823]where you're adding organisms to your pack.
[00:07:57.180]Here, we just have a retortable, flexible pouch
[00:08:00.880]and, once you add those organisms,
[00:08:03.050]you'd run it through the process
[00:08:04.950]and then, see if anything lives, essentially.
[00:08:11.918]Lastly, we have this temperature distribution test,
[00:08:15.780]and I even tell the small canners,
[00:08:17.770]even if you've got a small canner about this big,
[00:08:20.550]but if you're doing it for sale, you still have
[00:08:23.130]to do this, this temperature distribution test,
[00:08:26.640]and this is gonna tell you where your cold spots are
[00:08:30.060]in that particular piece of a instrument, okay?
[00:08:32.930]So, here we have a big one, but what you might do
[00:08:35.370]is you'd be setting up thermocouples here,
[00:08:37.580]here, at the top, all around, and then, in the center,
[00:08:41.122]and then, testing whether there's any cold spots,
[00:08:45.970]that each portion of that retort
[00:08:48.390]is coming up to the proper temperatures,
[00:08:52.810]and here just kinda shows you where
[00:08:55.210]the start of these thermocouples
[00:08:56.470]are and the temperature profile.
[00:09:01.300]Record requirements, when you get into commercial canning,
[00:09:03.790]become much more onerous and you have to have
[00:09:08.770]times, temperatures, people have to sign off on the records.
[00:09:13.250]Those records need to be reviewed,
[00:09:15.450]and that has to happen before release of any product.
[00:09:20.190]Okay, so, there's much more record keeping
[00:09:21.890]and much more traceability that's important.
[00:09:26.540]So, to summarize, on the retail canning,
[00:09:29.440]acidified foods are regulated by 21 CFR 114.
[00:09:33.270]Low acid canned foods are regulated by 21 CFR 113.
[00:09:38.190]The formulation and process, you
[00:09:40.200]clearly need to define those.
[00:09:42.220]A process authority must review them,
[00:09:44.220]either for acidified foods or low acid canned foods,
[00:09:48.250]and a scheduled process would have to be filed with the FDA.
[00:09:51.620]USDA is under a different set of
[00:09:53.280]regulations for the canning of meats.

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