CFR > Title 21 - Food and Drugs > CHAPTER I—FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES > SUBCHAPTER B—FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION (parts 100 to 191) > PART 113—THERMALLY PROCESSED LOW-ACID FOODS PACKAGED IN HERMETICALLY SEALED CONTAINERS > SUBPART E—Production and Process Controls (§113.81 to §113.89) > 113.87—Operations in the thermal processing room.

113.87—Operations in the thermal processing room.

(a) Operating processes and retort venting procedures to be used for each product and container size being packed shall either be posted in a conspicuous place near the processing equipment or be made readily available to the retort or processing system operator and any duly authorized employee of the Food and Drug Administration. Scheduled processes must be made readily available to the supervisor and any duly authorized employee of the Food and Drug Administration.
(b) A system for product traffic control in the retort room shall be estab-lished to prevent unretorted product from bypassing the retort process. Each retort basket, truck, car, or crate used to hold containers in a retort, or one or more containers therein, shall, if it contains any retorted food product, be plainly and conspicuously marked with a heat-sensitive indicator, or by other effective means that will indicate visually, to thermal processing personnel, those units that have been retorted. A visual check shall be performed to determine whether or not the appropriate change has occurred in the heat-sensitive indicator as a result of retorting for all retort baskets, trucks, cars, or crates, to ensure that each unit of product has been retorted. A written record of these checks should be made.
(c) The initial temperature of the contents of the containers to be processed shall be determined and recorded with sufficient frequency to ensure that the temperature of the product is no lower than the minimum initial temperature specified in the scheduled process. For those operations that use water during the filling of the retort or during processing, provision shall be made to ensure that the water will not, before the start of each thermal process, lower the initial temperature of the product below that specified in the scheduled process.
(d) Timing devices used in recording thermal process time information shall be accurate to the extent needed to ensure that the processing time and venting time specified in the scheduled process are achieved. Pocket or wrist watches are not considered satisfactory for timing purposes. Digital clocks may be used if the operating process and the venting schedule have a 1-minute or greater safety factor over the scheduled process.
(e) Clock times on recording-temperature charts should reasonably correspond to the time of day on the written processing records to provide correlation of these records.
(f) The steam supply to the thermal processing system shall be adequate to the extent needed to ensure that sufficient steam pressure is maintained during thermal processing, regardless of other demands of steam by the plant.
(g) If mufflers are used on bleeders or vent systems, evidence that the bleeders or vents are operated in a manner that does not significantly impede the removal of air shall be kept on file. This evidence may be in the form of heat distribution data or other satisfactory evidence such as a letter from the manufacturer, the designer, or a competent processing authority.

Code of Federal Regulations

Effective Date Note: At 76 FR 11923, Mar. 3, 2011, § 113.87 was amended by revising paragraphs (b), (c), and (e), effective March 5, 2012. For the convenience of the user, the revised text is set forth as follows: § 113.87 Operations in the thermal processing room. (b) A system for product traffic control in the retort room shall be established to prevent unretorted product from bypassing the retort process. Each retort basket, truck, car, or crate used to hold containers in a retort, or one or more containers therein, shall, if it contains any retorted food product, be plainly and conspicuously marked with a heat-sensitive indicator, or by other effective means that will indicate visually, to thermal processing personnel, those units that have been retorted. A visual check shall be performed to determine whether or not the appropriate change has occurred in the heat-sensitive indicator as a result of retorting for all retort baskets, trucks, cars, or crates, to ensure that each unit of product has been retorted. A record of these checks should be made. (c) The initial temperature of the contents of the containers to be processed shall be accurately determined and recorded with sufficient frequency to ensure that the temperature of the product is no lower than the minimum initial temperature specified in the scheduled process. For those operations that use water during the filling of the retort or during processing, provision shall be made to ensure that the water will not, before the start of each thermal process, lower the initial temperature of the product below that specified in the scheduled process. The temperature-indicating device used to determine the initial temperature shall be tested for accuracy against a reference device for which the accuracy is traceable to a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), or other national metrology institute, standard reference device, by appropriate standard procedures, with sufficient frequency to ensure that initial temperature measurements are accurate. Records of the accuracy of the temperature-indicating device and of a reference device that is maintained by the processor shall be established and maintained in accordance with § 113.100(c) and (d) . (e) Clock times on temperature-recording device records shall reasonably correspond to the time of day on the processing records to provide correlation of these records.