Dec. 16, 2002

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COLLEGE STATION - Like a mail-order house at Christmas, boxes and cartons cover a table, filled with condiments of every conceivable ingredient.

But this is no gift house. That is unless you're an entrepreneur hoping to get your product approved for sale to consumers.

"We get an average of five calls a day," said Dr. Al Wagner, Texas Cooperative Extension food technologist. "It's wild what people dream up. And every now and then, someone comes up with something unique."

Wagner's lab at Texas A&M University looks for safety issues, or conditions that would be favorable for growth of clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism, in foods that are not pressure packed or sold frozen.

Salsas, barbecue sauce, Oriental sauce, marinara sauce, ice cream sauces, pickles, dressings, and peppers - any of these created by Texas entrepreneurs are destined to make their debut with Wagner's team. He doesn't get involved in the recipes or product tasting but can recommend ways to alter the mix to obtain the most important factor in food safety - pH.

"The pH or acidity has to be less than 4.6 and I'd really like it to be 4.2," Wagner said. "That tells me that they can produce their product heated, put it in jars, and the lid will seal to keep it safe. In acidic foods, to keep botulism spores from growing, the pH is very important."

In addition to the product testing for acidity, entrepreneurs must also complete a food processors course taught each fall by Wagner. Those components, added to the business and marketing plans needed to bring a new product to consumers, can be daunting for up-and-coming food processors.

"There are some successes," said Wagner, noting that about 1,200 different salsas are marketed in Texas alone. "But for every one success, there are about 30 failures."

Over the years, Wagner estimates, some 2,000 samples have been put to the test. Now some 240 jars a year arrive for the free, 20 minute test that will help determine whether a product goes forward.

In additional to the test at Texas A&M, two containers of each product also are sent to an independent lab in the state for what is generally known in the state food processing industry as "Dr. Wagner's Shelf Life Test." That means the product is incubated for 30 days at two temperatures -- 100 F and room temperature -- to see if bacteria, yeast or mold grows. Wagner gives his recommendation to the potential food processor based on the pH test and the results from the independent lab.

For all its importance, the dual testing effort can be completed in little more than a month. A person could be "up and rolling" within two or three months of conceiving a product, Wagner said.

"It's an assurance, a comfort zone we have that our products have been tested and are safe for consumers," said Rhonda Archer, director of operations for Red Eye Brand, a Bryan company that processes bloody Mary mixes and co-packages various products for other companies.

She said Wagner's lab did the initial checking on the product years ago and has remained a resource person for the company to check with regarding proper food handling rules and forms over the year, thus helping the company be viable and grow.

Wagner's work with Texas entrepreneurs evolved over the past two decades, he said, initially because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began requiring the "Better Process Control School."

Wagner began teaching the class 25 years ago. Gradually his name spread among existing food processing companies and by individuals who took his course and by the FDA, and more and more products began to show up at his lab. People who believed they could market a product had no place else to turn for assurance their product was consumer-safe.

"Dr. Wagner's biggest contribution is to the protection of the general public health and welfare by increasing the safety of processed foods," said Daniel Brackeen, Texas Food Processors Association president and head of Heritage Family Specialty Foods Inc. in Grand Prairie.

"The program he leads prevents start-up, want-to-be food processors who operate out of substandard facilities from receiving processing approval for legal sale in Texas," Brackeen noted. "And that's a significant contribution to the citizens of Texas."

Being on the front end of products that may eventually become big successes is a plus for his job, Wagner said.

"Its fun going through grocery stores or at airport gift shops and seeing products you've worked with finally on the shelf," he said.