Nutraceutical Nut-Based Butter Formula – Food Safety Assessment

SITUATION
A company was interested in getting into the nutraceutical space and introducing their first line of nut butters infused with nutraceutical and better-for-you ingredients. They had positioned themselves as a natural skincare company with food-forward solutions to addressing issues with skin health.

PROBLEM
The founders were in discussions with a co-manufacturer to scale the production of their nut butters. However, they were concerned that the addition of nutraceutical ingredients would impact the food safety and quality of their nut butters. They wanted to confirm that the shelf-life was not impacted, and the nut butters would remain palatable over one year.

SOLUTION
I evaluated their formulation and ingredient specifications. Using literature research for comparison, I determined that the nutraceutical ingredients would have minimal impact on the shelf-life or microbiological safety of their nut butters. However, the increase in moisture content by one of the ingredients was a potential concern for botulism, given the high oil content of the nut butters, and I recommended that the team send their nut butters to a microbiological lab to get quantitative data on the microbiological risks of their food product following trial production. I also offered natural preservatives, other ingredients, and heat-treatment processes that could safeguard the product from microbiological contamination.

BENEFITS
The founders were assured that their nut butters would have little risk of causing a safety or quality concern down the road. They could move forward with their product concept and feel confident that the product would be received by their market test consumers without fear that they would cause harm or suffer severe quality setbacks due to their formulation.