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Don’t Be Le* Out In The Cold – A Primer On Cold Brew And Food Safety Lorenzo Perkins Allen Leibowitz Page 1
Introductions
•  Lorenzo Perkins
Director Of Education
Cuvée Coffee
Austin, TX
•  Allen Leibowitz
Independent Consulting
Houston, TX
Which Are Food Products?
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Cold Brew End Use
•  In-house
–  On tap
–  Put in container, concentrate or ready-to-drink (RTD)
–  Kegged
•  Wholesaled to customers
–  Kegs
–  Containers
•  Distributed – shelf stable
Considerations
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Processing environment
Correct food-handling procedures
Cleanliness of packaging and equipment
Refrigeration
“Shelf-life”
Microorganisms
•  Present in our environment
•  Some are worse then others
•  Controlled by different methods
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Refrigeration
Acidification
Pasteurization
High Pressure Processing (HPP)
•  Goal is to reduce the harmful ones
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Affects Of Processing
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Flavor
Color
Acidity
Clarity
Brewing In-house
•  Goals
– Very specific flavor, sensory experience
– Consistency
– Needed to scale for demand
Brewing
•  Product delivered in kegs and in cans
•  Brewing vessels are cleaned and sanitized
using industry standard techniques
•  Kegs and cans are cleaned using industry
standard techniques before filling
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Storage
•  Product is kept refrigerated.
–  After production
–  Through distribution
–  To the end user
Shelf-stable RTD
Additional considerations
Microbial reduction
Processed in a registered facility
Microbial Reduction
•  Many well documented methods
Some newer methods
–  Pasteurization (varying time/temp) standards
–  High Pressure Processing (HPP)
–  Irradiation
–  Aseptic
•  Low-acid (pH above 4.6) have additional
requirements
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Low-acid Canned Food (LACF)
Cold brew coffee (observed) pH 5.2 -5.4
•  Concerns are certain life-threatening hazards in
some LACF
•  Clostridium botulinum (C. bot)
–  Anearobic
–  Spores are heat resistant
–  Grows in pH between 4.8 and 7.0
What Do You Do?
Choices - Each affects the product
•  Lower the pH
•  Process at very high-temp
•  High ratio of dissolved sugar
•  Storage at temps below 38°F (3°C)
•  Produce a challenge study
Lower the pH
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Add an acidulent
Wide array of acids
Other “natural flavors”
Taste, color?
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High Temp
•  Needs to be around 280°F (138°C)
•  Processed in a retort – high pressure
•  Significantly alters taste and color
Challenge Study
•  Demonstrate that (LACF) product does not
support the growth of C. bot.
•  No publicly available study for coffee
•  Real-time study for shelf-life
•  Specialized labs
•  Expensive
Contact Information
•  Lorenzo Perkins
Cuvée Coffee
lorenzoperkins@gmail.com
•  Allen Leibowitz
Espresso Lab
aleibowitz@gmail.com
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