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Regulatory acceptance of nonthermal technologies |
J. W. LARKIN, National Center for Food Safety & Technology, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, IIT Moffett Campus, 6502 S. Archer Rd., Summit Argo, IL 60501 New food processing procedures are being developed that do not have the historical supporting documentation that is characteristic of the more traditional thermal processing procedures. Many of these technologies may fall outside the purview of the Low Acid Canned Foods (LACF) regulation, and are not directly addressed in the Juice HACCP or Seafood HACCP regulations. Since nonthermal processing procedures are used to process food products, they need to operate in such a manner as to render the food product free of any potential public heath hazard (sections 402(a)2, (a)3, and (a)4 of the FD&C Act). Thermal or nonthermal food processes must result in a food product that does not "bear or contain any added poisonous or added deleterious substance," that does not consist "in whole or part of any filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance," and that it has not been "prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health." In addition, if the nonthermal process utilizes any source of radiation, its use shall be subject to the food additive provisions of section 409 of the FD&C Act. Concerns associated with the use of nonthermal processes such as filtration, irradiation (UV), high hydrostatic pressure, and pulsed electric field to deliver a microbially lethal processing step during the production of a food product will be addressed. Nonthermal processes will be discussed in terms of their impact on organisms of public health significance, the procedures used to establish the process, the ability to identify the critical factors of the process, uniformity of the process treatment or identification of the minimum treated portion, and the ability to document that a scheduled process has been delivered to the product.
Session 22, Establishing processing criteria in nonthermal food preservation
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