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Juice HACCP

Five logs

Updated

On this page10
10 to the fifth. Not a target, a minimum.

What the regulation says

Control measures "that will consistently produce, at a minimum, a 5 log (i.e., 10 5) reduction" in the pertinent microorganism.

What a log reduction is

Each log is a tenfold reduction. Five logs is a hundred-thousand-fold reduction, which is the scale that turns a hazard into an acceptable risk rather than merely improving it.

Consistently is the operative word

Not achieved once in a validation. Produced consistently by the control measures, which is what makes it a process question rather than a test result.

The pertinent microorganism

Identified for your product rather than assumed. It depends on the juice, the pH and the process, and getting it wrong means validating against the wrong target.

Pasteurisation is the familiar route

Heat, held for a time, validated. It is well understood, the equipment is available at small scale, and it changes the flavour of a fresh juice in ways the market notices.

High pressure processing is the other

Pressure rather than heat, which preserves more of the fresh character. It is capital intensive and usually bought as a service, and it is why the premium cold pressed category exists at all.

And it has to happen before packaging

The requirements are met and "final product packaging" performed "within a single production facility operating under current good manufacturing practices". Treating and then bottling elsewhere is not the arrangement contemplated.

Which is a real constraint on using a service

If the treatment is done by somebody else, the packaging arrangement has to be read against that requirement rather than assumed to be fine because the treatment was effective.

Validation is a document, not a belief

Somebody has to establish that your specific process, on your specific product, achieves the reduction. That is a study with a report, and it is the thing an inspector asks for first.

References

21 CFR 120.24, process controls for juice. A processor must use "control measures that will consistently produce, at a minimum, a 5 log (i.e., 10 5) reduction" in the pertinent microorganism, effective "for a period at least as long as the shelf life of the product when stored under normal and moderate abuse conditions", with the requirements met and "final product packaging within a single production facility operating under current good manufacturing practices". law.cornell.edu
Written from 21 CFR 120.24 and 101.17(g), and from the catalog as it stood on 18 October 2026. Whether a given product is a juice, an acidified food, a dietary supplement or an alcoholic beverage decides which regime applies, and that determination is specific to a formula and a label.