Hi Dan, Why is a pressure cooker needed to make your product shelf stable? I pack tons of shelf stable product and a pressure cooker is not equipment on our production line.
Ron.
Innuendo Foods
www.innuendofoods.com
First, let me say that I am a new to the forum and a complete rookie in the food industry. Between bridging the learning curve, hours and hours of hard work, excitement and exhaustion, I think that things are moving forward with my venture; at least pre-market! However, I am somewhat stuck and looking for options to keep the positive momentum, which is the reason for this post.
I am searching for companies to co-pack with, specifically ones that have the ability to handle what is called a retort process (pressure cooker) for my meat-chili product I am interested in taking into the market place. I am running into some issues with finding such a company that would be capable of this (at least so far).
Part of the issue is that my chili product has greater than 40% meat, which means I need to locate a company that will have retort process capabilities OR lower the pH levels to below 4.2 to hopefully by-pass the retort process since many co-packers do not have this capability.
I have also been looking at using commercial kitchens to at least get the product started - but even if I can get by the retort process, I am not even sure if it is legal in CA to cook meat-products in those facilities, bottle them by hand and begin selling.
In general, I was hoping to hear what others have gone through and connections that might be able to guide me in the correct avenue. I can be reached via email at mhtapping@hotmail.com. Again, thank you in advance for whatever suggestions you might have to offer!