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.