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Temperature control: All microorganisms have a defined temperature range in which they grow, with a minimum, maximum, and optimum. An understanding of the interplay between time, temperature, and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors is crucial to selecting the proper storage conditions for a food product.

Time control: When considering growth rates of microbial pathogens, in addition to temperature, time is a critical consideration. Food producers or manufacturers address the concept of time as it relates to microbial growth when a product’s shelf life is determined.

The Food Business shall develop and maintain the systems to ensure that time and temperature is controlled effectively where it is critical to the safety and suitability of food. Such control shall include time and temperature of receiving, processing, cooking, cooling, storage, packaging, distribution and food service up to the consumer, as applicable.

Whenever frozen food / raw materials are being used / handled / transported, proper care should be taken so that defrosted / thawed material shall not be stored back and after opening for future use.

Such systems shall also specify tolerance limits for time and temperature variations and the records thereof shall be maintained in a register for inspection.

Wherever cooking is done on open fire, proper outlets for smoke/steam etc. like chimney, exhaust fan etc. shall be provided.

Steam should be clean, dry and free from boiler carryover; which depends on boiler operations pressure and loading, water treatment management and efficient distribution; which influence the quality of steam.

Premixing & Mixing, Fermentation, Handling of Bulk Dough:

Premixing

• Flour should be sieved through minimum 32u mesh and the sieve should be cleaned regularly.
• If weevils are found, such consignments should be rejected.
• There should be a periodic cleaning mechanism to prevent cross-contamination and dust generation and to ensure safe collection of unwanted materials like dust, dirt, foreign objects if any.
• Good Practices; such as vacuum cleaning, collection of debris through hypochlorite can be used)
• Sugar to be passed through magnetic grill before use and periodic cleaning of magnetic grill to be ensured.
• Sugar bags to be free from any external contamination like dust, dirt, rice bran, etc.
• Egg trays to should be free from dirt or pests
• Broken egg- shells to be stored in plastic bags and disposed off at regular intervals.
• Fruit cuts to be washed with ozonized water before use.
• Potassium sorbate to be dissolved thoroughly in water before use. Only freshly prepared sorbate solution to be used.

Mixing

• Mixing room should be clean & dry without any spillage
• All mixing utensils should be free from grease and old batter. This is ensured by using washing before use.
• Mixing bowls, beaters and scrappers to be washed with hot water at least once in 24 hours
• Egg whisk to be added in mixing through strainer only. The strainer to be cleaned with hot water at least once in each shift followed by swabbing with hypochlorite solution. The strainer is to be dipped in 500ppm Sodium Hypochlorite solution, when not in use.
• Mixing room floor to be cleaned with hot water followed by mopping with hypochlorite solution

Dividing and Preparation of Individual Units:

• From bulk dough, unit dough piece or batter is separated for processing before baking.
• High speed machines, Semi-automatic equipment, and hand work are required.
• Food should be prepared at steady pace and not allowed to stand more than necessary for process.
• Temperature control should be maintained as needed by process.
• Dough bits, dusting flour, and oil if left on worktable for long, will go rancid and will allow bacterial and fungal growth.
• Slicer blades & conveyor belts to be sterilized with isopropyl alcohol at least 3 times in each shift or as & when required
• Contact parts of packing machines to be cleaned with 500 ppm hypochlorite solution
• Exposure of UV light on PVC trays, cakes & wrappers to be done during packing
• Metal Detectors to be checked with probes before every start of the packing machine
• Uniform sorbate spray to be done on the top surface of the naked bar cakes before packing.
• Air of sorbate spray line is filtered through the Ultra filter unit, which is checked by the Supplier and changed, if required.

Slicing/Packing of Bread and Confectionary Products:

• Cool baked products on clean racks and trays. As far as possible, the baked products should be covered during cooling.
• Clear crumbles that are left after slicing the products.
• Use clean packaging to pack the products.
• Control samples must be kept in a separate designated place for each batch of production; required to recheck on the samples during any special situations like customer complaints.
• Finished products must confirm to FSSAI Regulations.

Retail and Display:

• Ensure that products are stored in clean display cases which are covered at all times.
• Ensure products are stored at appropriate temperatures (e.g. cakes with fresh cream should be stored in chiller display units at 4ºC and below).
• Do not display products with perishable fillings beyond 4 hours at room temperature. Adopt first in-first-serve approach in the display of products for sale.
• A time stamp is to be used for the products to inform consumers on the “consume-by” date

Packaging

What is the distinction between Packaging and Packing?

Packaging encompasses ‘packing’ and takes and integrated view of the Product requirement, Production needs, Marketing needs, Distribution Hazards and Customer satisfaction.

Packing simply involves stuffing or filling in the material and is one of the many aspects of Packaging.

What are the functions of packaging?

Protection: Packaging material shall provide adequate protection for all baked products to prevent contamination and damage.

The food contact material includes, all material which directly comes in contact with food like:

• Primary Food Packaging Material.
• Utensils, spoons, scoop etc.
• Equipments & containers.
• Chopping boards.
• Cutting tools
• Cling films used to cover foods.
• Conveyor belts, others.

bakery process. Use of temperature display, recording devices are necessary and helpful for ovens

Yeast dissipation of the oven is important, insulated in case of wood fired oven or diesel fired so that smoke can be let out directly and the temperature in the manufacturing premises does not rise.

Cooling

Proper cooling is essential after baking. The product should come to room temperature naturally before packaging. Improper cooling will lead to condensation in product after packaging and early spoilage due to microbial growth. Cooling should also be done in clean and cool air so as to avoid contamination of product.

Packaging/ Wrapping

• Packaging is done as a medium to safeguard the food from external spoilage as well as means to provide product information to the consumer. Most of the small bakery units refer doing manual packaging rather than installing automated packaging. Or it is a semiautomated activity example; biscuits are first manually packed in trays and then sent on conveyors for packaging.
• Use of clean baskets and trays should be done to hold the finished product before packaging.
• Often a metal detector step should ideally be incorporated during packaging to rule out possible metal contamination. This metal detection is considered as CCP so that metal contamination if caused while processing and packaging can be controlled.

Product Storage

• Product Storage is temperature sensitive, can be classified into:
  • Ambient storage for dry products like Khari, toast, bread, biscuit
  • Cold storage- Chocolate and fresh cream cakes, pies, pastries
• Product storage should be away and separate from Raw material storage to avoid cross contamination
• Product should be stored on pallets and away from the wall and not the floor, near the wall.
• Product stacking should be appropriate so that the lower boxes or wholesale packages maintain their integrity and do not get crushed under pressure.
• Product storage should be labelled and classified according according to the product for easy product flow and dispatch.
• Products should be stored facilitating First- Expiring- First- Out (FEFO) to maintain stock rotation.
• Use of temperature and humidity recording devices are helpful to maintain the FSMS.
• Product recalled or withdrawn from the market should have segregated storage.

Pest control

• Bakery ingredients like flour and sugar are prone to rodent attacks. The entry for these should be avoided in a bakery by sealing or fitting wire meshes to points where access can be gained. The most prevalent pest in a bakery rodents, cockroaches and flies. Use of trap, insecticutors, air curtains and PVC curtains can help to avoid entry and elimination.
• Potential breeding sites should be identified example; near mixers where there is left over dough.
• Food or product shall be contained in pest proof containers example; display counters in cake shop. Bulk packages of wholesale shall be stacked on pallets away from the floor and roof.
• Pest infestations should be dealt with immediately without affecting the product and chemical if used should be food grade with Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS).
• Record maintenance of pest control activities and pest activity if any needs to be done FSMS.

Water

Whenever water is used as a raw material, potable water only should be used of standards as laid down by the FSSAI and other international standards. Water pipelines of potable water and sewage should be separate and maintained for leakages to avoid contamination.

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