AIB Unveils New Kill Step Calculators for Bread and Muffins

Whole wheat multigrain bread and cake muffins are the latest product profiles added to AIB International's catalog of baking process kill step calculators. These calculators and accompanying consulting service are empowering bakeries to validate their food safety preventive controls and accurately evaluate 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 industry-wide need to scientifically validate thermal processes to ensure product safety.

Commercial bakers can now use AIB's free Baking Process Kill Step Calculators to evaluate the lethality of a thermal process (baking) to destroy Salmonella in their hamburger buns, whole wheat multigrain bread, and cake muffins, and demonstrate effectiveness of the process to comply with FSMA. The interactive calculators work by using oven time and temperature parameters to automatically determine the total process lethality (e.g., 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 International. "Under FSMA, the FDA is requiring proof of that theory; however, prior to AIB's latest contribution, there was no publically available research to use as foundational scientific validation."

Commercial bakeries 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 International, visit www.aibonline.org or call 800-633-5137.