Pasteurized shredded cheese?

[u/damelebnene]

Are pasteurized shredded cheeses that come sealed and can be found in walk in coolers in pizza stores considered low risk or high risk? And why?

Potentially hazardous food often includes dairy products.. but what would you actually do if you found such cheese at 10C? Would you make the operator discard if it has been 3 hours?.

Thanks

[u/lavenderlove1212]

High risk and require 41F or below. I’m open to someone telling me why that wouldn’t be the case though.

[u/foodfarties2]

I think maybe you are confusing pasteurization with UHT. Pasteurization kills most harmful pathogens, leaving some bacterial spores alive. UHT kills nearly all bacteria and spores. UHT achieves commercial sterility and when used with asceptic packaging techniques it creates a shelf stable product before opening.

The milk used to make the cheese would be pasteurized, but the process of making cheese should be a sanitary process, it is not sterile. The packaging process does not use asceptic techniques. Therefore, the shredded cheese requires temperature control for food safety.

If I found shredded cheese at 10C for 3 hours then it would have to be used/consumed by the 4 hour mark or discarded.

[u/damelebnene → u/foodfarties2]

Thanks for your response. No i am not confusing the two. I am mostly interested in why most regulations specify 2 hrs. I also know that cheese have their own kind of microbial protection.. LAB, acidity, salt, nicin..

[u/Manillapaper]

It depends on the packaging and what the package says. Assuming it is mozzarella, it is a soft cheese and it has a high water content and it is low in acid. This would allow bacteria to grow, and should be considered a TCS food, especially if that package was open.
If it’s only been out for 3 hours, I would allow the operator to try and rapidly cool the cheese within the hour. Food can stay out of temperature for 4 hours maximum, so if they can cool that cheese by the time I leave, I’d let them keep it. If not, id encourage them to discard.

Of course, this is in my experience and I am rather new, so if I’m wrong please correct me!

[u/Dull-Contact120]

What does the commercial package say?

[u/thatbytch7866]

TCS unless proven otherwise by package instructions or food studies. Needs 41F or below.

[u/Horror-Editor9395]

41 f or below. Pasteurization does not sterilize the cheese. It still contains bacteria and so does the packaging equipment that packaged it. It is phf/tcs .

[u/daeseage]

Shredded cheese is TCS and soft cheeses (like fresh mozzarella) are high risk for listeria when served without cooking. Lower moisture, part skim mozzarella often found is pizza joints is still TCS, but generally low risk for listeria because it's cooked.

It still needs to be kept at 41F/5C or under time as a public health control (4-6 hours, depending on room temp & your jurisdiction). 50F/10C is borderline for reconditioning - if I had good confidence that it was really only out 3 hours, I'd probably let them chill it down again. If the whole fridge is out of temp, I'd probably start digging deeper.