At 08:42 AM 4/27/00 -0700, Mika wrote:
>To: Seafood HACCP Mailing List
>
> Sushi rice is vinegared and stored at a room
>temperature. A health department inspector came to a
>Japanese sushi restaurant, and he said that keeping
>sushi rice at a room temperature was a violation and
>the rice was thrown away. However, the sushi rice was
>made twice a day for lunch and dinner at this
>restaurant, and when the rice pH was 4.6 or below, it
>is not a hazardous food. The owner explained about
>sushi rice pH, but the inspector asked him to bring
>the rice to a laboratory and check the pH. At the
>laboratory, conducting a challenge test about
>sushi rice costs $2000-$5000 for various pH levels and
>storage temperatures. OR a 2-hr seminar costs $700 to
>teach the Japanese owners how to measure rice pH. A
>material fee of $30 per person will also be charged to
>measure their own rice.
> I think it's very expensive and there are other
>less expensive solutions. I propose to buy the pH
>kits and tell the owners how to measure their pH. I
>will provide a cost estimate shortly. Does someone
>have any good ideas?
If sushi rice is just rice, water and vinegar, it has a predictable pH. A
simple experiment would prove this. Then the CCP would be the % vinegar
addition in the make-up, plus the maximum hold time.
Salmonella can grow at this pH, but only slowly. Bacillus (a key rice
hazard) won't grow below pH=5 (it dies slowly) and neither will
Clostridria. Staphylococcus will not generate toxin below pH=5.3 or so.
If you can't get help otherwise, email me privately and I'll see if I can
run a simple validation study for you on pH.
================================================================
Robert A. LaBudde, PhD, PAS, Dpl. ACAFS e-mail: ral@lcfltd.com
Least Cost Formulations, Ltd. URL: http://lcfltd.com/
824 Timberlake Drive Tel: 757-467-0954
Virginia Beach, VA 23464-3239 Fax: 757-467-2947
"Vere scire est per causae scire"
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