MN Food Safety Partnership
February 01, 2012
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MN Food Code requirements.
How this relates to schools, retail food
service and grocery operations.
How to deal with unannounced time
plans
What does “for immediate
consumption” really mean?
When is time as a control, not time as a
control?
What may be in store in the new code
Questions/Discussion
AND THE WORD WAS
4626.0410 3-501.19
4626.0410 3-501.19 TIME AS PUBLIC
HEALTH CONTROL.*
Subpart 1. Requirements.
Time only, rather than time in conjunction with
temperature, may be used as the public health
control for a working supply of potentially
hazardous food before cooking, or for ready-toeat potentially hazardous food that is
displayed or held for service for immediate
consumption, if:
A. the food is marked or otherwise identified with the
time within which it shall be cooked, served, or
discarded;
B. when the food that is provided for service and
consumption is removed from temperature
control, the food:
(1) is served or discarded within four hours; and
(2) is not removed from time control and returned
for use at a later time;
C. food in unmarked containers or packages, or for
which the time expires, is discarded; and
Subp. 2.
Notification.
The food establishment must submit written
notification to the regulatory authority of its
intention to use the procedures provided under
this part prior to implementing the provisions
of this part.
D. written procedures are maintained in the food
establishment and made available to the
regulatory authority upon request, to ensure
compliance with:
(1) items A to C; and
(2) part 4626.0385 for food that is prepared,
cooked, and refrigerated before time is used as
a public health control.
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For our MDH-delegated establishments
Hennepin County Ordinance 3 requires:
The food establishment licensee must submit
written notification to the Health Authority of
his/her intention to use the procedures
provided under this part and receive approval
from the Health Authority prior to
implementing the provisions of this part.
July 23, 2004
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We received a lot of input from our State partners
This was an issue for the 2004 Conference for Food Protection,
resulting in a recommendation to add language to clarify that it
meant eaten on-site or while walking away
Finally CFSAN was consulted - interpretation was that it meant
to be eaten right there. Carryout required a variance.
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3-hour hold, rather than 4
Time as a control plan
Notice to customers to consume within one
hour of purchase
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Potentially hazardous food:
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Ready-to-eat food for immediate consumption
Working supply of food to be cooked.
A. "Potentially hazardous food" means a food that is natural
or synthetic and is in a form capable of supporting:
(1) the rapid and progressive growth of infectious or
toxigenic microorganisms;
(2) the growth and toxic production of Clostridium
botulinum; or
(3) n raw shell eggs, the growth of Salmonella enteritidis.
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B. Potentially hazardous food includes a food
of animal origin that is raw or heat-treated, a
food of plant origin that is heat-treated or
consists of raw seed sprouts, cut melons, and
garlic and oil mixtures that are not acidified or
otherwise modified at a food processing plant
in a way that results in mixtures that do not
support growth as specified in item A.
Bob King / [email protected]
And Food MAY NOT be returned to
temperature control
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Can use timers or logs as long as they know
when a product must be discarded.
If the product isn’t marked, timer isn’t set, log
not maintained, must be discarded.
Follow usual variance procedures in
4626.1690
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Product time-marked at 8 am being used in the
afternoon as “someone must have made more.”
Chicken held for 4 hours then cooled for
chicken salad.
Food held in kitchen “over the rush” and put
back in cooler until next rush.
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Rotisserie chicken held for 4 hours in case not
holding temperature
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No time marking
Several batches mixed together, but “we remember
where we put each batch”
Removed from warmer and put in different warmer
after 4 hours
After some indeterminate time, cooled in walk-in
Used the following day for chicken salad, chicken
soup, and sold as cooked chicken
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When the intention is to keep the food either
hot or cold
When time is used for quality purposes and the
food is maintained at temperature
When the appropriate regulatory entity has not
been notified
In these cases, it is a violation if the food is out
of temperature.
When the Minnesota Code is updated
to match FDA Code
Potentially Hazardous Food (Time/Temperature
Control for Safety Food).
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(1) "Potentially hazardous food (time/temperature
control for safety food)" means a food that requires
time/temperature control for safety (TCS) to limit
pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin formation.
(2) "Potentially hazardous food
(time/temperature control for safety food)"
includes:
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(a) An animal food that is raw or heat-treated; a
plant food that is heat-treated or consists of raw
seed sprouts, cut melons, cut leafy greens, cut
tomatoes or mixtures of cut tomatoes that are not
modified in a way so that they are unable to
support pathogenic microorganism growth or
toxin formation, or garlic-in-oil mixtures that are
not modified in a way so that they are unable to
support pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin
formation;
Except as specified under ¶ (D) of this section, if
time without temperature control is used as the
public health control for a working supply of
potentially hazardous food (time/temperature
control for safety food) before cooking, or for
ready-to-eat potentially hazardous food
(time/temperature control for safety food) that
is displayed or held for sale or service:
No more “for immediate consumption.”
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Food held for service must still be ready-to-eat
No requirement to notify customer in food
code
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The FDA commissioned a study and found that
most consumers put cold food in the fridge
within 2 hours of purchase.
Table 1. The USDA Pathogen Modeling
Program estimation of growth (Log CFU/g)
of several pathogens for 6 hours or 8 hours,
at 65°F.
Pathogens
6 Hours
8 hours
B. cereus (vegetative
cells)
0.62
0.87
E. coli
0.35
0.52
L. monocytogenes
0.47
0.71
Salmonella Spp.
0.25
0.41
S. flexneri
0.26*
0.34*
S. aureus
0.38*
0.51*
* Model predictions were in 5 hour increments,
the 6 and 8 hour data was extrapolated between
5 hour and 10 hour predictions.
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If time without temperature control is used as the
public health control up to a maximum of 6 hours:
(1) The food shall have an initial temperature of 5ºC
(41ºF) or less when removed from temperature control
and the food temperature may not exceed 21ºC (70ºF)
within a maximum time period of 6 hours;
(2) The food shall be monitored to ensure the
warmest portion of the food does not exceed 21ºC
(70ºF) during the 6-hour period, unless an ambient air
temperature is maintained that ensures the food does
not exceed 21ºC (70ºF) during the 6-hour holding
period;
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(3) The food shall be marked or otherwise identified to
indicate:
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(4) The food shall be:
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(a) The time when the food is removed from 5ºC (41ºF) or less
cold holding temperature control, and
(b) The time that is 6 hours past the point in time when the food
is removed from cold holding temperature control;
(a) Discarded if the temperature of the food exceeds 21°C
(70°F), or
(b) Cooked and served, served at any temperature if ready-toeat, or discarded within a maximum of 6 hours from the point
in time when the food is removed from 5ºC (41ºF) or less cold
holding temperature control; and
(5) The food in unmarked containers or packages, or
marked with a time that exceeds the 6-hour limit shall
be discarded.
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The time remains 4 hours
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A food establishment that serves a highly
susceptible population may not use time as
specified under ¶¶ (A), (B) or (C) of this section
as the public health control for raw eggs.
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The requirement to notify the Regulatory
Authority first is gone
But they still need written procedures –
prepared in advance and available onsite for our review
And it’s still a violation if they don’t have
written plan or are intending to maintain
temperature and don’t
Debra Anderson
Hennepin County Environmental Health
Hopkins, MN
[email protected]
&
Jim Topie
Agriculture Consultant
Dairy and Food Inspection Division
Minnesota Department of Agriculture
Duluth, MN
[email protected]