Campden BRI is updating guidance on heat preserved foods to help the food and drink industry manage risk in this area with the best practices.

The project, which involves close collaboration with industry experts, will align the new document with current technologies used in the heat preserved foods sector.

Covering all packaged and ambient stable foods that receive a thermal process to extend shelf-life, the new guideline will provide expert advice to a large portion of the industry.

Campden BRI Fellow Dr Gary Tucker, who is helping produce the new guideline, said:“The heat preserved foods sector is one of the largest and commercially important, yet its most popular guideline was first published over 25 years ago. Not only does this predate the widespread use of the internet, but also doesn’t factor in advances in the technologies regularly used by manufacturers in this sector. This project will change that, updating the current guidance to reflect modern best practices, helping manufacturers continue to produce safe food and drinks.”

The new guideline will reflect changes in computing technology that have enabled food businesses to operate much more efficiently in all aspects, from ingredient control through to electronic data capture and storage.

The bulk of the content will cover four main areas which are critically important for ensuring food safety, including:

• Management of pre-processing stages to avoid spoilage before the thermal process is applied
• Correct application of the thermal processing step
• Ensuring the packages are hermetically sealed, and
• Avoiding post-process contamination from all points after the thermal process is applied.

To steer the guideline update, Campden BRI has recently put together a working party of its members but are open to further input from anyone with experience in commercially heat preserving foods. The project will be led by Campden BRI’s Thermal Processing Working Group which has pushed hard for this updated guideline.        

Prof Tim Foster, Scientific Affairs Director at Campden BRI, said: “Of our 2,400 member companies, it’s those that thermally process products that have been requesting such an update for a while, so it’s great that we’ve now assembled a knowledgeable team and secured the funding from our research programme to begin production of this document.”

Founded over 100 years ago, Campden BRI has a long history of canning and heat preservation, putting them in the ideal position to produce and launch what is predicted to become a staple document for manufacturers across the world involved with thermal processing.

Tucker continued: “This new guideline will fill a large gap in the food industry’s knowledge which is why we’re keen to encourage food businesses to take part and inform this valuable piece of work.”

The new guideline document is expected to be available to purchase from Campden BRI by early next year. Those interested in being involved should contact Gary Tucker: gary.tucker@campdenbri.co.uk or call 01386 842035.