Sec. 10.15.01.09. Process Controls in Low Acid and Acidified Food Canning

The person-in-charge shall ensure that:

A. The canning process is monitored and controlled as necessary to ensure the food's safety, stability, and shelf life;

B. The cook time, cook temperatures, and pH of each batch of canned food are measured and recorded;

C. Through strict processing criteria, monitoring, record keeping, and corrective action, a container of food processed as an acidified food is not distributed if the final pH measurement of the food is greater than 4.6 (4.7 for tomatoes and tomato products) when the food’s water activity is greater than 0.85;

D. Sealing and seaming closure inspections are conducted to verify that containers are properly hermetically sealed;

E. When a deviation from the scheduled process occurs:

(1) The food manufactured during the deviation is:

(a) Held for evaluation by a process authority; and

(b) Completely reprocessed, destroyed, released, or otherwise disposed of in accordance with the decision of the process authority; and

(2) The deviation and associated corrective action is documented in a record;

F. Records are maintained to identify the initial distribution of the finished product to facilitate, when necessary, the segregation of specific food lots that may have become contaminated or otherwise rendered unfit for their intended use; and

G. The records required in §§B, C, E, and F of this regulation are retained for at least 3 years from the date of manufacturing and are available for inspection by the Department.