What a pain. I mean we use certified kitchens (health dept, not ag dept) and we're insured seven ways to sunday but who knew trying to get this further out there would be such a twisted issue. In the states eyes I always considered us a low water activity food, that's what they classify chocolate sauce as--or did. Their new site is confusing me and I should probably talk to the extension office.We currently sterilize the jars through the oven method then we transfer once cooled into a fridge. Which was in line with
UGA on Choc. sauce so for general use and early consumption I think we currently meet most criteria, it's the idea of taking this into a wider audience--and outside of cold storage into places that are going to have to go the distance that is deeply worrisome.I think from here we're going to adapt some suggestions ie: switch out some sugar, maybe use some powdered egg instead of total replacement (we're not having good luck with any large % shift), do some testing with Rosemary Oil in very light light use--if we can at all stay in our current textures/tastes/etc, we'll ship it to the state college for testing/evaluating.This has all been talk over chocolate sauces, but what of caramel sauces that use a lot more sugar, then butter & heavy cream. I can't think fructose or dextrose will behave right in a caramel making process. Are there any thoughts on it's safety/stability? I haven't been able to google up much info at all concerning it.