HACCP In Sugar Cane Juice Processing

Joel tumwebaze

Sugar cane Juice processing

PROCESS FLOW AND HACCP

BY Joel Tumwebaze

7/19/2012

The document highlights the terms involved in drawing a HACCP plan for Juice manufacture, steps in identifying critical control points, process flow chart for sugar cane juice manufacture together with the critical control points at relevant stages Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS HACCP

Hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) is a system that identifies and monitors specific food-borne hazard-biological, chemical or physical properties that can adversely affect the safety of the food product. The HACCP system identifies biological, chemical and physical hazards at specific points in the flow of food and the ways these contaminants can be prevented from causing or spreading food-borne illness. The FDA puts the HACCP principles in regulating Low acid canned food industries, seafood industry, and the juice industry (Arduser, 2005)

In 1998 the U.S. Department of Agriculture established HACCP for meat and poultry processing plants as well. Most of these establishments were required to start using HACCP by January 1999. (USDA regulates meat and poultry; FDA all the others). HACCP has been endorsed by the National Academy of Sciences, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (an international food standard-setting organization), and the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods(Arduser, 2005)

HACCP’s Seven Principles

HACCP focuses on how food flows through the process-from purchasing to serving. Each step in the food-preparation process there are a variety of potential hazards. HACCP provides managers with the framework for implementing control procedures for each hazard. It does this through identifying critical control points (CCPs). These are points in the process where hazards are more likely to be introduced. The seven principles of HACCP include:

1.   Analyze hazards; Potential hazards associated with food and measures to control those hazards are identified. The hazards could be biological, such as microbes: chemical, such as toxins; or physical, such as ground glass or metal fragments.
2. Identify critical control points; These are points in a food’s production process at which the potential hazard can be controlled or eliminated.
3. Establish preventive measures with critical limits for each control point; For cooked food, for example, this might include setting the minimum cooking temperature and time required to ensure the elimination of any harmful microbes.
4. Establish procedures to monitor the critical control points; Such procedures might include determining how and by whom cooking time and temperature should be monitored.
5. Establish corrective actions to be taken when monitoring shows that a critical limit has not been met; For example, reprocessing or disposing of food if the minimum cooking temperature is not met.
6. Establish procedures to verify that the system is working properly; For example, testing time-and temperature-recording devices to verify that a cooking unit is working properly.
7. Establish effective recordkeeping to document the HACCP system; This would include records of hazards and their control methods, the monitoring safety requirements, and the action taken to correct potential problems. Each of these principles must be backed by sound scientific knowledge; for example, published microbiological studies on time and temperature factors for controlling food-borne pathogens.

HACCP IN SUGARCANE JUICE MANUFACTURE

Freshly extracted sugarcane juice cannot be stored for a couple of hours due to its fast deteriorating quality. It should therefore be preserved by adding food grade preservatives where the shelf life can be extended to about six months. In sugarcane juice, the microbial contamination found is mainly yeast. Sugar cane juice is quite nutritious as it contains natural sugars, minerals like iron, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium and organic acids e.g. malic acid, succinic acid, acotinic acid, amino acids, protein, starch, gums, waxes, non-sugar phosphatides. Sucrose, monosacharides, some polysaccharides and glycoproteins are associated with sugar cane Juice. Some processors of sugarcane juice also add lemon, ginger and mint for enhancing the taste. Lemon is also used as a disinfectant. Fresh juice processed, preserved and aseptically packaged has a good storage life.

The sugarcane processing plant should be situated at a place where sugarcane is easily available. Sugarcanes can be available through out the whole year. The preservatives, packaging and additives are also locally available.

Definition of terms

1. Cleaning means washing with water of adequate sanitary quality
2. Control means to prevent, eliminate, or eradicate.
3. Control measure means any action or activity that is used to prevent, reduce to acceptable levels, or eliminate a hazard
4. Critical control point (CCP) means a point, step, or procedure in a food process at which a control measure can be applied and at which control is essential to prevent, reduce to an acceptable level, or eliminate an identified food hazard.
5. Critical limit means the maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological or chemical parameter must be controlled at a critical control point to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an acceptable level the occurrence of the identified hazard
6. Culled means the separation of damaged fruit  from undamaged fruit
7. Food hazard means any biological, chemical, or physical agent that is reasonably likely to cause illness or injury in the absence of its control.
8. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) means a systematic approach to the identification, evaluation, and control of food safety hazards.
9. HACCP Plan means the written document that is based upon the principles of HACCP and delineats the procedures to be followed
10. HACCP Team means the group of people who are responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining the HACCP system
11. Hazard Analysis means the process of collecting and evaluating information on harzards associated with the food under consideration to decide which are significant and must be addressed in the HACCP plan.
12. Juice means the aqueous liquid expressed or extracted from one or more fruits or stem, root or tuber vegetables
13. Juice concentrate means the aqueous liquid extracted from one or more fruits, root stem or tuber vegetables and reduced in volume through the removal of water from the juice.
14. Monitor means to conduct a planned sequence of observations or measurements to assess whether a process, point or procedure is under control and to produce an accurate record for future use in verification
15. Pasteurization means a heat treatment sufficient to deatrol vegetative cells of pathogens.
16. Process Authority means an expert in the processes for controlling pathogenic microorganisms in food, and ad such, is qualified by training and experience to evaluate all of the aspects of your pathogen control measure, e.g process time, temperature, type of equipment, e.t.c. and determine that your measures, if properly implemented, will control pathogens effectively.
17. Retail establishment means an operation that provides juice directly to consumers and does not sell or distribute juice to other businesses. The term “provides” includes storing, preparing, packaging, serving, and selling juice.
18. Shelf stable product means a product that is hermetic ally sealed and when stored at room temperature, should not demonstrate any microbial growth.
19. Validation means that element of verification focused on collecting and evaluating scientific and technical information to determine whether the HACCP system, when properly implemented, will control effectively the identified food harzards.
20. Verification means those activities, other than monitoring, that establish the validity of the HACCP plan and that the system is operating according to the plan. It includes validation procedures.

Juice hazard analysis

The juice hazard analysis is a process of collecting and evaluating information on hazard associated with juice, to determine which hazards are reasonably likely to occur and must be addressed in a HACCP plan.

CCP Decision Tree Table

                  

Process for sugarcane juice manufacture

Incoming materials

• Sugarcane deteriorates quickly after it has been cut and should be processed as quickly as possible. The sugarcanes are received directly from the field or from local storage facilities.
• Packaging materials are delivered in clean, well-maintained, and covered vehicles.

 Processing

• Sugarcanes are visually inspected prior to unloading and placed into cold storage or proceed to the next step
• Sugarcanes are washed prior to primary culling
• During primary culling, damaged sugarcanes are culled out and disposed off
• Sugar canes are rinsed with portable water
• Blanching of sugarcanes stems in boiling water for 5minutes before squeezing and/or addition of 0.1% ascorbic acid was an efficient method to prevent the browning and diminish the enzyme activities in the fresh juice. The key enzyme related to the browning of suagarcane juice is polyphenol oxidase (PPO) that reacted with phenolics compounds.
• Peeling can either be done manually by knives or mechanically by abrasive peeler. the mechanical method is more efficient with the uice yields 76.4% and 94.6%, respectively, the reason being that peeling by the abrasive tool leaded to less sugarcane flesh loss in the peeled skins due to a constant depth of peeling whereas the manual peeling by knives strongly relied on the skills and consistency of the worker. Furthermore mechanical peeling is more convenient and much faster. The peeling process exposes the inner fibre.
• Squeezing can either be done using a rolling squeezer or a hydraulic pressing machine. The hydraulic pressing machine utilizes thinner and shorter size sugarcanes hence the intensity of the compression force on the sugarcane stem is higher resulting in the more amount of squeezed juice compared to the roller squeezer. Despite the higher yield from hydraulic pressing, the time consumed from the pressing method was 186minutes compared to around 20 minutes for the rolling squeezer at the same amount of sample (10kgs).
• The juice so obtained is clarified and filtered to get a clear solution. Required quantities of permitted preservatives, additives and flavours are added. The process should be carried out under hygienic conditions. The bagasse from the cane should be disposed off quickly or dried at a distant place since it attracts flies and ferments leading to foul odour
• Juice concentration/pasteurization Juice concentration using hot water as heating medium at a temperature of 700c under vacuum pressure 70cmHg could produce the highly concentrated sugarcane juice (app.600Bix) unlike freeze concentration.

Packaging and shipping

• Juice is filled into HDPE blow-molded bottles of various sizes. Bottles are capped, passed through a metal detector, labeled, cased, and stored refrigerated until shipping.

Flow chart of sugarcane juice manufacture with HACCP