FROZEN SNOW PEAS PROCESSING

Receiving

Snow peas will be received at the factory after the intake assessment has been done and that they would comply with the customer specification. Raw materials which do not meet those set quality parameters will be rejected at this point.

These produce will be received at the factory in clean crates and will be stored in the cold store at 8°c +-2to facilitate preservation.

PROCESSING

The purpose of this procedure is to give sequential steps and controls that are followed by the operators while preparing frozen snow peas.

Washing:

Turnips will be washed in chlorinated water at 50 – 100 ppm ensure compliance before cutting to reduce possible microbiological load.

Blanching:

Blanching will be done on the blancher, blanching time and temperature will be monitored and recorded. The water temperature shall be maintained at 92ºC. The snow peas are blanched at 92ºC for 7 mins and then cooled immediately. A peroxidase test will be done after half an hour to determine if blanching was effective. Q.C department shall keep records for both peroxidase test and blanching temperatures.

Spin Drying, Arrangement in Freezer Crates and Air Drying

The snow peas are spin dried using a spin dryer and then spread evenly in the freezer crates

Air Drying

The freezer crates with the products are arranged in an air dryer. The excess water from the surface of the product is blown off. The products are offloaded from the air dryer after sufficient drying and loaded to the Freezer.

Blast freezing process

The Freezer crates are arranged inside the Blast freezers .The snow peas will be subjected to a very cold blast of air from the side of the freezer which will then freeze the snow peas individually.

Freezing in the blast freezer should be done for a minimum of 40 minutes at -35°C to -40°C

Proper monitoring of the Blast freezer temperatures shall be done and recorded.

The following details shall be recorded for each batch:

1.      Time in

2.      Temperature in

3.      Time out

4.      Temperature out

Packing, weighing and sealing

 The snow peas is offloaded from the freezers and taken to the tables for packing into labeled bags. The packed bags are weighed correctly and then sealed well.

Metal Detection

All bags are passed through the metal detector to check on presence of metals inside the bags.

The packs are packed into the final boxes after passing the Metal detector and then palletized in the cold room. All packed cartons shall be stored in the cold room at -18°C. All cold room temperatures shall be monitored regularly.