Kill-Step Validation for Food Safety

Controlling internal food temperature is key to achieving food safety. The experts at Reading Thermal provide state-of-the-art equipment that will provide kill-step validation for your baking process.

Reading Thermal, located in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, has researched the commercial baking process for 25-plus years. We manufacture and support the SCORPION® 2 Profiling System, also known as the SCORPION® 2 Data Logging Measurement System, that is now a standard in the baking industry.

Advantages of Validating a Kill Step

  • It helps meet safety regulations set by regulatory agencies.
  • It is the only way to prove that a process consistently delivers the desired lethal effect to ensure the destruction of pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli.
  • It helps achieve maximum food safety.
  • It helps protect consumers and reinforces consumer confidence.
  • It saves the food industry millions of dollars by avoiding recalls and other legal penalties from foodborne illness outbreaks.
  • It supports business success.

How to Comply

The SCORPION® 2 Temperature Sensor Array  measures temperature at product level, in fixed positions across the conveyor, and delivers an accurate representation of what your product experiences over time. Different types of pluggable sensors are available, including one designed for solid or tight mesh conveyors and one for open mesh conveyors.

Once connected to the SCORPION® 2 Data Logger, the sensor array travels through the oven with the product, providing a precise picture of temperature from side-to-side and end-to-end.

After gathering data, the SCORPION® Software (SV8) Food Safety Module simplifies the lethality calculation and then generates a comprehensive report that displays cumulative log reduction.  By combining this ease of measurement with robust data capture, the SCORPION® 2 System makes it simple to optimize your process while meeting food safety standards.

To comply with FSMA Kill Step Validation regulations, you may be using a tool that measures and documents temperatures inside the oven, one that measures only temperatures. Accomplish more by connecting a variety of Reading Thermal pluggable sensors and sensor arrays to measure other baking parameters that affect product quality.

For example, bakeries depend upon the SCORPION® 2 Humidity Sensor to measure the absolute moisture content of the thermal environment in both heating and cooling processes. And oven air velocity can be measured and recorded with the addition of the SCORPION® 2 Air Velocity Sensor.

Our SCORPION® Profiling Service assists customers with problem-solving at their own facilities. We use the state-of-the-art SCORPION® Data Logging Measurement System to collect thermal profiles of temperature (air, band, product), air velocity, heat flux, and humidity. We can analyze a single line or perform multi-line comparison studies to determine what is causing problematic processing conditions and help you find solutions.

Food safety is a global challenge. To easily comply with FSMA Kill-Step Validation requirements for your baked goods, count on the Reading Thermal SCORPION® 2 Profiling System and our various sensors and sensor arrays. Get in touch with us in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, at (610) 678-5890 Ext. 2, or contact us online to learn more about our innovative products.