AIB International, Manhattan, KS, is enabling bakeries to validate their food safety preventive controls with a first-of-its-kind baking process kill-step calculator and consulting service that accurately evaluates Salmonella destruction in bakery products. The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requires validation and verification of thermal processes, or kill step, creating an industrywide need to scientifically validate thermal processes to ensure product safety.

Commercial bakers can use AIB’s free Baking Process Kill Step Calculator to evaluate the lethality of a thermal process (baking) to destroy Salmonella in hamburger buns and demonstrate effectiveness of the process to comply with FSMA. The interactive calculator works by using oven time and temperature parameters to automatically determine the total process lethality (for example, 5 log) for Salmonella. If the desired log reduction is achieved for the baking process and pathogen of concern, the generated report can be used as guidance and supporting documentation for FSMA’s validation and verification process.

“The food industry has long believed that all biological organisms like yeast or pathogens are killed in the oven, and critical product quality attributes are achieved,” says Lakshmikantha Channaiah, microbiology director at AIB. “Under FSMA, the FDA is requiring proof of that theory; however, prior to AIB’s latest contribution, there was no publicly available research to use as foundational scientific validation.”

AIB collaborated with stakeholders Kansas State University, the American Bakers Association Food Technical Regulatory Affairs Committee (ABA FTRAC) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to design, execute and submit for publication peer-reviewed research supporting the hypothesis that typical baking processes for hamburger buns serve as a lethal kill step. This work, currently under review, will be the first publicly available scientific research for kill-step validation in bakery products, according to AIB. The initial calculator determines lethality of a bun baking process, with additional calculators for muffins, whole wheat bread, and cookies expected by early 2016.

Commercial bakers looking for additional support can schedule AIB’s Kill Step Validation Consulting service. A professional will visit the bakery, collect appropriate time and temperature data, calculate lethality of the baking process, and assist with data interpretation.

For more information about AIB, visit www.aibonline.org or call 800-633-5137.