Another Food Safety Story: The Destruction of Contaminated Product
The company I worked for produced ice cream under the brand name of a major retailer. Part of the contractual obligations was that batches be delivered accompanied by a certificate of analysis, which, among others included a total viable count (TVC) number. The specification included an upper limit for TVC.
One day, the lab reported that they found the TVC number to be over the limit. There was only one conclusion for this batch: It had to be destroyed. In this case, the product was considered to be still good enough as pig feed and a large pig farmer was contracted for this job. As per company procedure, one of the quality assurance (QA) people went with the frozen truck to the pig farm in order to witness the destruction—on a Friday.