Selling Delicious and Safe Cold Brew by Randy Anderson
Tips on How to Sell Your Cold Coffee Products Without Killing Anyone (Including Your Brand)
I
n September of 2017, Death Wish Coffee of Round Lake, NY issued a voluntary recall of their nitro cold brew cans. The following is an excerpt from their website concerning the recall. “A process specialist has recommended that we add an additional step to our nitro cold brew production process. Based on these recommendations we’ve decided to recall all Death Wish Nitro cans... No illnesses have been reported in connection with this issue. This recall is merely a precautionary step.” While Deathwish survived, the recall was costly and a reminder for everyone that food safety is a very real issue when it comes to cold brew coffee that many in the coffee business have never had to consider before. Of all of the hot topics concerning cold brew coffee, food safety is the least exciting but likely the most important. This is especially true with product that is packaged and leaves the premises (cans, bottles, kegs, etc.) To be clear, there are few if any actual incidents with cold brew that have resulted in illness or death. I spoke with Mike Brown, CEO of Deathwish in the weeks following the recall. After our conversation, I was convinced and still am that they made the right decision. The recall was a “precautionary measure.” So, was there an actual danger? I don’t think so (for reasons I am gladly willing to discuss offline). However, that is not the point. The point is that there are rules and those rules cannot be broken. If they are broken, your business and your brand will suffer. The rules (for products sold to the general public that leave your premises) are established by the FDA, the governing body that ensures the safety of food and beverages consumed by the public in the USA. Many producers of cold brew add a “kill step” by pasteurizing the cold brew before canning, bottling or kegging. While this ensures that most microorganisms such as e. coli, salmonella and listeria are destroyed, it does not address the spores of clostridium botulinum or “c. bot”. C. bot is a rodshaped bacteria with spores that are anaerobic, meaning they live and grow in low oxygen conditions (i.e., nitro filled cans that expel oxygen). If conditions are right (which include heating to about the same temperature used to kill other bacteria), the spores go into a vegetative state and will produce botulin - the toxin that results in deadly botulism. Not understanding or following the rules can hurt your business since a recall will most likely be issued. The problem is that cold coffee is a low acid food (4.6 pH and above). If the cold brew were below 4.6 pH, it would be acidic and the spores could not survive. The only kill step needed would be pasteurization.
22
However, C Bot. also needs a warm environment to survive. In the eyes of the FDA, if canned cold brew is not kept cold during the entire process (known as the “cold chain”), there is a danger of botulism. While I believe that this danger is minimal, it is still a possibility and therefore enforced strictly by the FDA. The only “kill step” that is acceptable for LACF (low acid canned foods) products like cold brew coffee is either retorting (basically a huge pressure cooker that heats the coffee inside the can to approximately 250°F for a period of 5 to 10 minutes) or, filling aseptically in A certified facility. I repeat, a certified a septic facility where the container that the product is being filled is validated as an acceptable vessel. Both of these methods are expensive and generally, but not always done by co-packers. Aseptic filling is a preferred method since it requires only flash pasteurizing. However, the minimum order quantities (MOQ’s) are very high. For aseptic filling.
I recently spoke with Dan Cox of Coffee Enterprises in Vermont. Recently, Dan and I discussed what he and I both felt was the most important consideration for those wanting to produce and sell cold brew. Dan pointed out “Many ambitious startups and even established coffee companies don’t understand or are just unaware of the pitfalls of food safety connected with cold brew. There have been numerous stories in the news of recalls, not to mention cold coffee products that had gotten to the shelf and been returned simply because of poor quality long before the best buy date had expired. This hurts those companies individually but also affects the entire category.” Mark Caporale of Caporale Consulting, a beverage formulator, and California certified FDA process authority had this to say. “With the rise in cold brew coffee demand, I see the biggest challenge facing coffee producers today is food safety. Whether selling cold brew in bottles, cans, or kegs it’s important to remember that coffee is a low acid food product and as such needs to brewed, handled, bottled/canned and stored carefully. Making and selling it in your coffee shop is one thing but transporting it either in cold chain distribution or shelf stable requires a working knowledge of food science and an understanding of food safety. The advantages & disadvantages of either cold chain or aseptic processing need to be carefully and thoroughly evaluated before a decision is made. This food safety decision is probably the single most important consideration in businesses who are growing their cold brew coffee business”. So what if you are brewing cold brew in your shop and selling to your customers on-premise? While the FDA does not concern itself at the store level, don’t be misled. Local and state health authorities are taking notice so handle your brew safely. I have actually witnessed in large retail coffee chains, open buckets of cold brew. Obviously, this is far from acceptable and a health inspector seeing this would no doubt take notice and possibly issue a warning. Cold brew coffee is a food product with potential health hazards if not handled properly and it represents your brand. For the sake of your own business, the entire coffee industry and more importantly, the health of your customers - please handle your cold brew coffee safely and carefully. Randy Anderson is A 20 year veteran of the coffee industry. For the past 6 1/2 years, Randy‘s has been providing customers small and large with solutions and education on the brewing, preparation, packaging and safe delivery of cold brew coffee, whether on dispense, in RTD format such as canned nitro and most recently, cutting edge no heat concentration for food service concentrates. His company, Caffrios leads the way in the cold brew coffee space as well as coffee cherry supply and CBD infusion. Randy is available for direct consultation as well as training events for basic and advanced cold brew. Randy can be reached through his LinkedIn page at www.caffrios.com, email at coldbrewconsulting@gmail.com or by phone at 360-524-2003.
May/June 2019