|
Avoiding splashing during clean fill Liquid foods and drinks are prone to splashing at the point of fill. If not managed appropriately, this could lead to the growth of spoilage micro-organisms and deterioration of product quality after processing. Our research* will help in the understanding and modelling of factors that influence splashing during clean filling of products. 
Clean filling uses technologies or conditions to reduce the level of product re-contamination and, although less stringent than aseptic filling, can nevertheless increase the shelf-life of chilled products ranging from milks, soups and sauces to fruit juices, fruit drinks and flavoured teas. Work to date has focused on reducing splashing during the filling operation. It has established that product viscosity and filler speed have the greatest influence on splashing. Other factors such as pot geometry and distance between filler head and pot only become significant at certain viscosities and filling speeds. A model has been developed to rank the adjustments that could be made to reduce splashing during particular filling operations. This will aid the design of new fillers and optimisation of existing systems to reduce splashing. *R&D Report No. 230 available to members from Carol Newman +44(0)1386 842048 pubs@campden.co.uk Contact: Grace Christian Reviewing labels in product development Developing proper labels for food and drink products is an essential part of the product development cycle - contributing as much to the success of food businesses as does efficient product development with quick passage to market. CCFRA's food law advisors help many companies to get their product labels right first time. Widely recognised for their food labelling expertise, the team's views are regarded as highly authoritative and are frequently sought by food manufacturers, retailers and enforcement authorities. 
John Hammond, Head of Information and Legislation comments: “If we are involved early in the product development cycle, we can advise on product formulation, so that names, claims and descriptions are supportable. Otherwise we can review either the full label or selected aspects and we can forewarn of potential difficulties and suggest practical alternatives. With product labelling affected by rules from well over 100 separate pieces of UK and EU legislation, as well as extensive formal and informal guidance, advice can avoid problems that could lead to costly re-formulations, label or product write-offs, and even difficulties with enforcement authorities.” In addition to confidential work for individual clients, the team has recently conducted two major labelling surveys for the Food Standards Agency, and provides extensive scheduled and tailored training courses on many aspects of food product labelling law. Contact: John Hammond DARE A new and innovative approach to risk and crisis management, designed specifically for food and drink companies, has been launched by CCFRA and specialist communications consultancy Razor. 
Known as DARE - and following a four phase cycle of Diagnose, Assess, Reform and Evaluate - the service will enable companies to develop comprehensive strategies for tackling the multitude of risks facing food and drink organisations. It is based on the guiding principle that technical, operational and reputation issues should not be reviewed and managed in isolation but as part of a cohesive approach to risk management. Mike Stringer, Director of Food Technology Division at CCFRA, comments: "This is an exciting partnership for Razor and CCFRA. Drawing on a wide variety of best-practice industry risk and crisis management techniques, DARE gives our members the chance to experience risk assessment and management best practice in a modular form, perhaps testing particular areas of weakness or need before expanding to a more inclusive approach." Contact: Mike Stringer See you at iba CCFRA will be exhibiting its bakery expertise and demonstrating the latest version of the C-Cell image analysis software at iba in Munich, between 3 and 9 October. If you are attending this, the world's largest bakery exhibition, we would be delighted if you would visit us at Stand 417 in Hall 3. Contacts: Anton Alldrick New process equipment 
A Vesuvio 250 litre cook/cool system, supplied by T Giusti, has recently been installed in the CCFRA pilot plant. Particularly suitable for cooking and vacuum cooling semi-solid and liquid foods - such as soups, sauces and fillings - the vessel is available for members to use in product development, processing trials and other work. It has both steam injection (Vapinject) and steam jacketed systems to allow rapid heating, with a scraped surface agitator that produces gentle but effective agitation for shear sensitive products. Contacts: Sarah Chapman Panel dates The dates for the 2007 meetings of the fourteen Technical Advisory Panels have been set: 
Contact: Leighton Jones Club opportunities - Extending MAP Modified Atmosphere Packaging is an established technique for extending the shelf life of chilled products. Use of the technique is beginning to extend to areas such as frozen products for sale on defrost. However, this has resulted in some companies observing unexpected effects on gas composition and product quality, when compared to MAP chilled-only counterparts. A club of interested companies is being established to investigate the causes and potential solutions to these anomalies, and expressions of interest or requests for further information are very welcome. Contact: Alan Campbell Pathogen control Control of pathogens such as Listeria and E. coli in chilled food production areas is extremely important in assuring safe products. CCFRA's Food Hygiene Department is inviting companies to participate in a club project to develop a document to help with control of these pathogens. The document will provide background on the pathogens and describe where in a chilled food factory they can grow and/or survive. Introducing a pathogen control concept, it will highlight the importance of the design of high risk barriers in preventing pathogen access, good manufacturing practices in preventing their spread and growth, and effective cleaning and disinfection programmes in ensuring their removal. Advice on swabbing regimes and trouble-shooting in handling incidents, and finding and eliminating sources of contamination will also be covered, as will decontamination of processing environments for quick resumption of production. Contact: Karen Middleton New hygiene guides CCFRA distributes the English language versions of guides from the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG) which has recently published several new guidelines:
These are priced at £30 per copy (CCFRA and EHEDG members) and £70 per copy (non-members). A full list of EHEDG guides can be found in the publications section of the CCFRA website. Further information on the activities of EHEDG can be found at www.ehedg.org Carol Newman Environmental Forum CCFRA's Environmental Forum is keen to hear from CCFRA members who wish to join (free of charge) or perhaps present their work at a Forum meeting. Reporting to the CCFRA Food Science Panel, the Forum acts like a Working Party, meeting three times a year to discuss and monitor environmental issues and developments of interest to the food sector. Recent discussions have covered Defra's new Food Industry Sustainabilty Strategy (FISS), renewable energy (including wind power and bio-energy), disclosure of environmental performance information and corporate social responsibility. The next meeting, to be held on 6 October 2006, will cover FISS, water reclamation and recycling, and anaerobic treatment of liquid food waste. David Leeks Welcome to New members CCFRA is delighted to welcome the following new members who joined in May 2006:
Contact: Bertrand Emond Please notify the Membership Department of any name or address changes with respect to our mailing list. |