Sensitive ingredients

Ingredients used in food manufacturing can be a source of microbiological contamination and the hazards vary by the ingredient source.

A sensitive ingredient is defined as ‘an ingredient known to have been associated with a hazard and for which there is reason for concern’.

The term ingredient normally also applies to raw materials. Sensitive ingredient was originally coined for microbiological hazards. It may consist of raw or unprocessed commodities such as flour, which has been previously described as a potential vector for Salmonella, with time and temperature for baking as an adequate control measure.

Sensitive raw material or ingredients such as dairy materials and proteins that may harbor spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms, must always by heat treated at some stage in the process.

In manufacturing system, when microbiologically sensitive ingredients are purchased, each incoming lot may be sampled and tested.

Microbiological specifications are used by buyers of food or ingredients to reduce the likelihood of purchasing a product that may be of unacceptable safety or quality.

The most common potentially sensitive ingredients are eggs, cocoa powder and desiccated coconut.

However, these are usually pasteurized, dehydrated and subsequently baked in the products, processes which render them microbiologically safe.

Other sensitive ingredients may also include processed ingredients such as chocolate chips for cookies, chocolate for enrobing of bakery products, peanuts and tree nut used as inclusions or as toppings.
Sensitive ingredients

Food grade quality materials

Food grade means edible and safe. It is able to be sued in food products. In some instances, monographs in the Food Chemicals Codex prescribe tests and purity specifications that enable the flavorist to be assured that the product is food grade.

It is an authoritative book of standards for food grade chemicals, provision for its continuous revision under appropriate sponsorship and supervision is highly essential.

Legally the addition of non-food grade material to a food flavoring constitutes criminal adulteration.

Many consumers are expressing concerns over the safety and the quality of food and these concerns extending to the used of new agricultural technology in food production.

Information about food quality can be provided through labeling, brand names, price and grades. Food grades, for example are used to classify products according to certain quality characteristics.

In food processing machinery, the use of food grade material such as nylon, sealed or self-lubricating bearings are preferable. Additionally, seals should be nontoxic and nonabsorbent.

If steam is to be directly injected then any additives used in the boiling water must be food grade.

Food must be packed in any suitable medium, the packaging medium and all other ingredients shall be of food grade quality.
Food grade quality materials

GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe)

GRAS lists a list of ingredients established by the FDA that had long been in use and were believed safe.

The Generally Recognized as Safe list was established in 1958 by Congress. Those substances that were being added to food over a long time, which under conditions of their intended use were generally recognized as safe by qualified scientists, would be exempt from premarket clearance.

After questions were raised about the safety of some GRAS ingredients, FDA initiated a review of these ingredients in 1972.

FDA utilized the scientific expertise of an independent organization, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, to assist in the evaluation, which spanned a decade.

Substances on the GRAS list are not officially considered food additives, so they are exempt from the legal requirement of proving their safety.

However, GRAS substances are continually reevaluated, and as new methods for testing are developed, some substances are removed from the GRAS list.

GRAS status requires consensus, but not unanimity, among epxo9erts qualified by scientific training and experience.

Under the FD&C Act, GRAS determination must be made ‘among experts qualified by scientific training and experience to evaluate its safety, as having been adequately shown through scientific procedures’.
GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe)

Microbiologically sensitive raw materials and ingredients

Microbiologically sensitive raw materials and ingredients
Meat and poultry
Eggs
Milk and dairy products
Fish and shellfish
Nuts and nut ingredients
Spices chocolate and cocoa
Mushrooms
Soy flour and related materials
Gelatin
Pasta
Frog legs
Vegetables, whole grains and flour
Yeasts
Dairy cultures
Some colors and flavor from natural sources

Compound may considered sensitive if they are combinations of sensitive and non sensitive ingredients.

For example, a fat coated on milk powder, or compound cheese flavor having cheese coated on starch.

It is best to determine if the blend contains as sensitive ingredient and also to determine if it has received a controlled processing step that destroys hazardous microorganisms.

In some cases, it is important to determine if the product is to be used as an ingredient.

Foods Not Normally Considered Sensitive
Salt
Sugar
Chemical preservatives
Food grade acidulentes and leavening agents
Gums and thickeners (some may be sensitive depending on origin, such as tapioca and fermentative derived gums)
Synthetic colors
Food grade antioxidants
Acidified high salt/acid condiments
Most fats and oil (exception is dairy butter)

Labeling of Food Additive

Labeling of Food Additive
The risks or benefits of food additive and ingredients must be clearly displayed for consumers. The FD&C Act requires, in virtually all cases, a complete of all the ingredients of a food.

The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act which amended the FD&C Act requires most foods to bear labeling and requires food labels that bear nutrient content claims and certain health massages to comply with specific requirements.

Two of the exemptions from ingredients labeling requirements have resulted in special product labeling efforts to protect the health of consumers.

First, the act provides that species, flavorings, and colorings may be declared collectively without naming each one.

One exception is the artificial color additive FD&C Yellow #5. This chemical must be specifically identified in the ingredients statement of finished foods because a small percentage of the population may be allergic or sensitive to the additive.

Second, FDA regulations exempt from ingredient declaration incidental additives, such as processing aids, that are present in a food at insignificant levels and that do no have a technical or functional effect in the finished food.

One of important example of an incidental additive is peanuts. An increasing number of products are identified that they “may contain peanuts.”

While peanut-derived ingredients were not intentionally added to these products, residues from peanut use in processing on nearby equipment or previous production runs may have contaminated these products with peanut residues.

Since peanuts are one of the leading causes of allergic responses to foods, many companies have chosen to label some product with “may contain peanuts.”

Some foods may be identified or labeled to contain additives that can improve public or individual health.

Many ready to eat breakfast cereal products are fortified with several vitamins and minerals.

A quantity of these substances is added to the cereal so that a consumer may expect to consume 25 to 100% of the recommended daily intake of that nutrient from a defined size serving.

Additives that can improve human health are sometimes advertised elsewhere in finished product packaging besides the ingredients list and nutrition label.
Labeling of Food Additive