Validation Studies and Processes

Studies and other required documentation to justify process preventive controls in food safety plan.

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Validation vs. Verification

A general interest paper outlining the Preventive Controls Summit 2013 and their guidance on developing effective strategies for meeting validation and verification requirements. The most relevant information begins on p. 413.
A guide of useful terms and common practices for conducting and interpreting thermal processing studies.
A series of short videos for appraising and controlling microbiological hazards. Topics covered include microbiological basics, testing for validation and verification, testing food lots, testing for processing control, anatomy of a sample plan, and analyzing results.
A brief article explaining the difference between verification and validation and their role in safe food processing.
A short video that explains the difference between validation and verification, as well as the role that both play in food safety.

Scientific Study/Technical Reference

A calculator to help bakers evaluate the lethality of their salmonella kill step by based on time and temperature readings.
This website is a database of over 60,000 records of quantitative and predictive food microbiology. It allows you to both search microbial growth and survival curves and predict the growth or inactivation of microorganisms.
A guidance document for the control of Salmonella when manufacturing low-moisture foods.
A question and answer sheet guiding processors through different types of non-thermal and alternative food processing and compares pathogen reduction in various types of produce and shellfish to compare efficacy between methods.
This bibliography provides an extensive list of publications about the microbial safety of nuts and sesame seeds that can help processors understand the risks of their food product and methods for risk reduction.
Keywords: nuts, sesame
This bibliography provides an extensive list of publications about the microbial safety of wheat, flour, and cereal grains that can help processors understand the risks of their food product and methods for risk reduction.
Keywords: grains
A bibliography of authoritative resources on different treatment approaces to address microorganinisms on nuts and nut pastes.
A detailed scientific examination of alternatives to pasteurization that still allow some level of food safety, possibly even equivalent to pasteurization
A lengthy guide examining the impact of salmonella and other pathogens on low-moisture foods, and demonstrating different methods to validate food safety plans targeted at controlling hazards associated with pathogens.
An article that explains the major component of conducting an antimicrobial intervention assessment and how small or very small processors could perform one at their facility. This includes a step-by-step list of activities to perform and formulas for statistical calculations of the data that processors can collect.

Verification

A brief step-by-step guide to create an ice bath for calibrating a thermometer, including photos.
A visual guide to different types of thermometers, their pros and cons, how to use, calibrate, and sanitize.
A guide to purchasing, using, and maintaining a pH meter
A table that compiles references for surrogate organism treatments to kill pathogens with comparisons between process type, treatment, surrogate organism, target pathogens, matrix, and summary.

General

An explainer of the role of validation in food safety, what processes should look like, and some examples of how to conduct an effective validation procedure on a safety process.
Keywords: validation
These guidelines are designed to assure that cooking instructions for NRTE products are capable of achieving a time/temperature combination sufficient to reduce possible pathogens to a safe level. The guidelines highlight some issues that should be considered when conducting validation studies and includes sample studies.
A guide through some common technical terms and symbols used in thermal processing and its research.
A list of laboratories in the Northeast region who can perform analytical testing on food
An introduction to water activity in food and how it can be used to predict food spoilage. This tool is useful in ensuring the longevity of food.