Acidified Foods
An inspector asks for your pH records. Have them ready before the question.
If you make hot sauce, salsa or pickles with added vinegar or acid, Part 114 asks you to show that every batch reached a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower. FourFoxes sets up the acidified-foods process when you sign up and keeps the pH record for every batch where you can hand it over.
14 days free. No credit card required.
The short answer
FourFoxes is batch and compliance record software for small acidified-food makers. Choose "Acidified Sauces, Salsas, and Pickles" when you sign up and confirm your starter product type, and your account gets the seven-step acidified process from 21 CFR 114.80 with a pH critical control point on the acidify step. Every pH reading is tied to its batch, who logged it and when, and your pH testing log exports as a PDF or CSV.
Part 114 is a records rule too. An inspection checks both halves.
21 CFR 114.100(b) asks for processing and production records that show you followed your scheduled process, including your pH measurements, with enough detail (product code, date, container size, product) to evaluate each lot. 114.100(e) says to keep them for 3 years from the date of manufacture.
If those records live in three binders and two spreadsheets, the inspection turns into an afternoon of digging. FourFoxes keeps each pH reading on the batch it belongs to, with who logged it and when, so the record exists the moment the check happens.
Seven steps from Part 114, laid out when you confirm your product type.
Tell us at signup that you make acidified sauces, salsas or pickles and confirm your starter product type. FourFoxes lays out the acidified-foods process on it, with each control marked where Part 114 puts one.
- 01Receive: check ingredients, acids and containers against your filed scheduled process
- 02Prep
- 03Acidify: finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower within the time your scheduled process designates
- 04Thermal process or hot fill, run as your filed process specifies
- 05Closure and closure exam
- 06Lot coding, one code per batch
- 07Cool and label, with every allergen in the batch declared
The steps are your process map. The record you log against is the pH check on step 03. If your process authority names the thermal step as your lethality step, change step 04 to a critical control point and enter the limit your scheduled process gives.
4.6 is the regulation's line. Your operating limit can sit below it.
114.80(a)(1) requires a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or lower, reached within the time your scheduled process designates and maintained in all finished foods. That's the number on your Acidify step.
Your pH check starts with a tighter operating limit, so normal batch-to-batch variation still lands under 4.6. You set it to what your own process calls for when you confirm the card.
Got a tighter limit from your process authority? Record it with their letter on the product type, and the Acidify step shows your filed number in place of 4.6. FourFoxes only accepts a filed limit that's stricter than the regulation's.
Above pH 4.0, 114.80(a)(2) requires the finished pH to be measured potentiometrically. Log your pH meter's calibrations in FourFoxes next to your readings.
A pH reading over the limit gets its corrective action on the same record.
When a reading misses its limit, FourFoxes asks for the corrective action before the check can close. The reading, the miss and what you did about it stay together on one record. A check nobody logged stays flagged until someone records it.
What happens to the product is your decision and your process authority's. When finished pH is above 4.6 or the process deviated, 21 CFR 114.89 gives three paths: fully reprocess it by a process a competent processing authority establishes, thermally process it as a low-acid food under Part 113, or set it aside for that authority's evaluation. FourFoxes records the miss and your corrective action. The disposition call stays with you.
Critical Control Points
3/3 recorded · 1 needs attentionA recall starts with one lot. Find every batch it went into.
114.80(b) requires a code on every container identifying the establishment, the product, and the year, day and period it was packed. Batches are one of the bases the rule allows for changing that code, as long as a batch doesn't span more than one personnel shift.
FourFoxes gives every batch its own code and ties ingredient lots to their supplier records, so when a supplier flags a lot you can follow it to the batches that used it. See how it works in batch traceability.
114.100(d) also asks for records of where finished product first went, so contaminated lots can be pulled from distribution. Log each shipment in FourFoxes by customer, date and finished-goods lot.
Every record carries a name and a time. Export it when someone asks.
Each batch and CCP record carries its author, timestamp and change history. Your HACCP monitoring logs, the pH testing log included, export as PDF or CSV. Export your records whenever you want.
Questions
Acidified foods and FourFoxes, answered.
Is my hot sauce an acidified food?
21 CFR 114.3(b) defines acidified foods as low-acid foods with acid or acid foods added, with a water activity above 0.85 and a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below. It excludes refrigerated foods, and acid foods such as condiment sauces that contain only small amounts of low-acid food and whose pH doesn't differ significantly from the predominant acid. Whether your recipe is covered is a call for your process authority.
Does FourFoxes file my scheduled process?
No. 21 CFR 108.25 requires acidified-food processors to register and file process information with FDA. FourFoxes keeps your filed pH limit and your process authority's letter next to the product they cover.
Do I still need Better Process Control School?
Yes. 21 CFR 114.10 requires processing and packaging operators to work under the supervision of someone who completed an FDA-approved school covering pH controls and critical factors in acidification. FourFoxes doesn't replace that course or track the certificate.
How long do I keep the records?
114.100(e) says 3 years from the date of manufacture, at the processing plant or another reasonably accessible location. You can export your FourFoxes records as PDF or CSV whenever you need a copy.
Is CCP logging an extra-cost add-on?
No. CCP logging is included on every FourFoxes plan.
Your next inspection is coming. Have the pH records ready.
Start a 14-day trial, choose acidified sauces, salsas and pickles when you sign up, and log your first pH reading this afternoon.
14 days free. No credit card required.
Built for the batch. Ready for the audit.