Salmonella?

[GreenDude]

Has anyone been harrassed by their local Health Agency lately due to all the salmonella outbreaks? I havent as of yet, but Im due for my annual visit any-day now. If anyone has, and has had to change anything in their roasting facility, could you please post what had to be done?! Pretty Please!

Thanks,

John

 

[caffe biscotto]

John, I'm curious how it affects the coffee industry. Maybe you could elaborate on what info you are hoping to find.

As a bakery, we get a variety of inspections here, local, state & fed and as long as we observe safe food handling practices, we're all set. The feds have a good record of where we get our ingredients from and to where we send the finished product.

Regarding the recent pistachio incident at Setton Farms, it's unfortunate that there are over a thousand farms in the U.S. that produce pistachios, but they all are suffering for the err of one.

For the record, we get our pistachios from Meridian, a nut grower that is not part of the recall.

 

[thewilliams1]

Hi John,

Taken from wiki .. "To protect against salmonella infection, it is recommended that food be heated for at least ten minutes at 75 degrees C (temperature at the center). The bacteria are not destroyed by freezing. Salmonella die rapidly in acid media, and common disinfectants destroy them within a few minutes."

Most of the nuts we get are raw, and therefore are at a higher risk. Coffee is unique because they are sterilized, more or less. I bet that by having a sterilization procedure in place for any work areas, any health inspector will recognize the effort and not give it a second look.

 

[GreenDude]

Well, one thing I was curious about was the green bean chain, from producer to container to warehouse to me. I'm not even sure if coffee harbors Salmonella, but I would imagine it can, although roasting at 400 should kill it??

My main concern is the health codes changing. If the packaging room is too close to a water supply / sink, or concrete floors now need to be painted, etc....I imagine every food facility will be analyzed a tad more closely these days, which is fine, however I dont want kooky inspectors coming up with crazy regulations! :x Im gonna go a bit off topic here, but what if they say coffee has to be roasted at 500 degrees due to whatever reason?! Haha imagine trying to explain roasting profiles and the like to these people....

David, Im sure you have far more regulations than a roaster so you would probably be the first to hear I would imagine.

John

 

[caffe biscotto]

Yeh, fda regs have said that between 40 and 140 is the danger zone for bacterial growth. Last food safety class I took, this has been updated to between 41 to 135 recently. Anything above 135 kills most bacteria, including salmonella, so your roasting temps are fine I'm sure.

Your finished product should not come in contact with potential bacteria hazards, that's where you may find stricter laws come into play with storage and after roast handling.

I should change my signature below to "I'm Ed not David!", LOL.

 

[caffe biscotto]

I should specify that the temperatures I listed above are in degrees of farenheit...

41F - 135F = 5C - 58C

 

[GreenDude]

Thanks for the replies guys....As far as "David", wow what a brain fart lol...Long day

 

[jlyon10]

Dave's not here. lol. I am going to see cheech and chong tomorrow night just couldn't resist.

 

[caffe biscotto]

Good one Jim...
Hey are you using your roasting equipment for things other than coffee beans again?

 

[GreenDude]

LOl no comment!

 

[caffe biscotto]

I'm sure Jim knows I'm kidding with him.
Hey, I like Cheech & Chong too!

 

[thewilliams1]

Good one Jim...
Hey are you using your roasting equipment for things other than coffee beans again?

at least this time he remembered to vent "inside" the room lol.

 

[GreenDude]

I picture a scenerio where an inspector walks in and asks, " geez, are you roasting the flowers from the coffee trees too?" Umm, no. Thats our new Chong coffee, its imported from China! LMAO

 

[jlyon10]

It's a mellow roast. Great show by the way.

 

[Charly]

I am going through the same dilema, read a lot of articles on Almonds etc. I guess high roast temperature are good enough to kill surface bacteria, as well as the final AW will be very hostile for any microbe to grow once the bean equilibrates . I guess most roasts well be above 135 C .
Has any one seen Temperature/time kill charts not from retorts? How can this get documented/validated?