D CONTROL (cocoa, chocolate and confectionery)

Summary

Signiﬁcant hazards a r Salmonella spp.

Control measures

Initial level (H 0 ) r Presence in raw cocoa beans unavoidable. Quantitative data are, however, missing. For ingredients used in confectionery products refer

to corresponding chapters.

Reduction (ΣR) r Roasting of raw cocoa beans (chocolate, cocoa powder). r Alkalization or dutching of cocoa liquor (cocoa powder). r Pasteurization, cooking, boiling (confectionery). r Precise ﬁgures on the levels of reduction are, however, not published.

Increase (ΣI)

r Selection of added raw materials. r Good hygiene practices.

Testing

r Salmonella monitoring program including environmental, line, ﬁnished product and critical ingredients to verify effectiveness of preventive

measures such as zoning. r Use of indicators such as coliforms/Enterobacteriaceae or total viable

counts is recommended.

Spoilage

r For certain confectionery products such as ﬁllings spoilage with

osmophilic yeasts or xerophilic moulds known.

a In particular circumstances, other hazards may need to be considered.

Hazards to be considered The only identiﬁed signiﬁcant health hazard of cocoa, chocolate and confectionery products is

Salmonella. Control measures

Initial level of hazard (H 0 ). Raw cocoa beans are a permanent but mostly unavoidable source of salmonellae, a fact conﬁrmed by their regular detection in environmental samples (dust and residues) from raw bean storage and handling areas. However, no quantitative data are available on levels.

Reduction of hazard (ΣR). Roasting of the raw cocoa beans is primarily designed to obtain the desired organoleptic proﬁle. It represents, however, the only killing step (Critical Control Point) for Salmonella (Simonsen et al., 1987; Cordier, 1994). It is important to ensure that the design and main- tenance of the roasting equipments do not allow further processing of unroasted material. Different processes and processing conditions have been developed but only few microbiological data demon- strating the killing effect are published. This is conﬁrmed by historical and practical experience but data do not allow to calculate precise D-values.

In the case of cocoa powder, alkalization or dutching are primarily applied to obtain the desired organoleptic characteristics of the powder. The conditions applied, however, allow to achieve effects almost equivalent to a sterilization (CCP; Meursing and Zijderveld, 1999). Again here no quantitative

475 In the case of confectionery products, more or less severe pasteurization, boiling or cooking condi-

COCOA, CHOCOLATE, AND CONFECTIONERY

tions are applied during the manufacturing or preparation processes and the majority of them provide appropriate killing (Miniﬁe, 1989). Due to the wide variety of products and processes, they should be examined individually.

Increase of hazard (ΣI). The presence of salmonellae in ﬁnished products is due to recontamination during further processing. Survival is likely over prolonged periods of time but no further growth is possible during storage and distribution due to the low water activity of the products.

Raw materials can be potential sources of salmonellae and can be differentiated and classiﬁed according to their potential risk (IOCCC, 1991). Processed raw materials such as dairy products, cocoa liquor and powder, crumbs and cocoa butter, egg products, gelatin, ﬂour, lecithin, coconut and starches may need regular checking, but this cannot replace reliance on the supplier’s Quality Assurance system and regular audits. Rework is particularly critical and should therefore be handled carefully.

In chocolate factories, water plays an important role in maintaining the temperature of liquid chocolate masses in pipes and storage tanks as well as for tempering and cooling. Microleaks may lead to contamination of the product and it is therefore necessary to guarantee the absence of Salmonella by appropriate disinfection methods. The use of water for cleaning should be restricted to a minimum. If wet cleaning is necessary, careful drying is then essential to avoid multiplication of bacteria, possibly pathogens, in wet residues such as milk-powder or sugar.

Recontamination from the processing environment is a further possibility and control can be achieved by an adequate layout of production lines allowing the physical separation of unclean, potentially contaminated zones from clean zones where roasted beans are further processed. Movement of personnel and of vehicles such as fork-lifts must be limited to maintain this separation.

HACCP for cocoa, chocolate and confectionery products is extensively discussed in ICMSF (1988) and Cordier (1994) as well as in the International Ofﬁce of Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery (IOCCC) Code of Hygienic Practice issued by the IOCCC (1991) with a complementary document on Good Manufacturing Practice (IOCCC, 1993).

Testing At the level of manufacturers, however, the implementation of an environmental sampling program to

verify the efﬁciency of the preventive measures (GMP and HACCP) is more effective. This program can be complemented with checks on critical raw materials, line and ﬁnished products samples as appropriate. Hygiene indicators such as coliforms or Enterobacteriaceae and, to a certain extent, of total viable counts can be used to detect deviations and recontamination.

The methods used for the examination of cocoa and cocoa-based products for Salmonella require special attention since antibacterial components present in cocoa inhibit growth and hence detection. Addition of skim milk or of casein to pre-enrichment broths is therefore necessary to overcome inhibitory effects (Busta and Speck, 1968; Zapatka et al., 1977). Antibacterial effects are not observed at the higher dilutions used for total counts (Park et al., 1979).

Spoilage Spoilage with osmophilic yeasts or xerophilic molds is only observed for confectionery products and

depends on their water activity. Presence in ﬁnished products is mostly due to recontamination through the use of contaminated ingredients or from the environment with airborne molds or contaminated residues on food contact surfaces. Growth is then dependent on the characteristics of the product as well as on the storage and distribution conditions and the shelf-life of the product.

The observation of strict plant hygiene and the testing of residues for fermentative yeasts is important.

MICROORGANISMS IN FOODS 6

photometric equipment is also used (Finoli et al., 1994) to select raw materials. Additional measures such as reduction of airborne molds (Dragoni et al., 1989), personal hygiene (Kleinert-Zollinger, 1988), separation of raw from processed product, and scheduled examination for microbial content are more or less important, depending on process or product (IOCCC, 1991, 1993).

D CONTROL (cocoa, chocolate and confectionery)