exclusive 2009 tech journal series prepared/ ready-to-eat foods … · 2011. 3. 17. · prepared...

2009 tech journal series

prepared and ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry items, prepared/RTE foods processors are using more natural and organic ingredients, adding new flavor systems — such as more Asian flavors — and employing natural extenders for cost reduction, as well as increasing shelf-life, notes Josh Herring, Ph.D., assistant professor of food biochemistry, Department of Food and Animal Sciences, Alabama A&M University.

In addition, processors remain focused on increasing product convenience and safety, as well as reducing costs, introducing recyclable packaging and utilizing reclosable packages.

They are also well aware that just one product recall

Consumers’ desire for restaurant-quality entrees doesn’t fade during an economic downturn; they just find a more affordable route to attain them.

According to the Chicago-based Perishables Group, consumer demand for prepared foods increased 3.7 percent from the previous 52-week period, ending June 27, 2009. In fact, in the deli department, prepared foods have reached 50.8 percent of total dollar sales. The most popular prepared foods reported were deli prepared chicken, salads and sandwiches.

As consumers increasingly turn to grocery delis and meat departments for convenient and high-quality

PrePared/ready-to-eat foods 101

PrePared/ready-to-eat foods 101

a national Provisioner research ProjectBy Megan Pellegrini

as prepared and ready-to-eat foods grow in popularity with consumers, processors remain focused on improving product quality and safety, as well as reducing costs.

IntroductIon

eXcLus IVe

Photo courtesy of West Liberty Foods

22 THE NATIONAL PROVISIONER | PROVISIONERONLINE.COM | NOVEMbER 2009

manufacturers: manufacturing a uniform and consistent product based on a variety of raw materials. This report, part of The National Provisioner’s ongoing Technology Journal series, will cover how meat and poultry processors are using technology to improve their manufacturing process and prevent exposure to foodborne pathogens.

can have devastating consequences not only for their company, but also for the whole industry. Food-safety controls are certainly critical for prepared/RTE foods because they have more opportunities to be exposed to pathogens during the post-process period and from consumer contamination.

There lies the challenge for prepared/RTE foods

sheer forces much more directly.“The tubes take a batch process and turn it into

a continuous process, and reduce the size needed in the plants from vats to something that can sit on your desktop,” says McMurray. “They also allow you to get more product out in the same amount of time and achieve a more uniform mixing process.”

He notes that while micro-channel technology is still very much in its infancy, it holds the potential to change a significant part of the prepared-foods industry.

cooking and freezing systemsProcessors always want to know the core

temperature of their product and to guarantee that products aren’t overlapping or touching because that can lead to an incorrect result.

But how can they control the core temperature of products moving down a conveyor? If they undercook products, they increase the risk of pathogen contamination, but if they overcook them, money is lost due to unnecessary energy and moisture consumption — outside of the effect on product quality. In addition, if they just use a thermometer to monitor product temperatures, the products on the outer edge of the conveyor may be properly cooked while the middle ones are undercooked. Now thermal image processing software and infrared cameras can monitor if products are evenly and appropriately cooked.

GTRI researchers are employing thermal imaging to provide a real-time, 3D image of the product’s shape and surface temperature and estimate its core temperature. If any of the findings are not correct, the imaging software would alert the processor to alter the conveyor equipment.

“With these types of data collection systems, we can look at a computer screen and check the products in the middle, not just on the edges, and make sure processors are getting what they think they are getting,” says McMurray.

One would expect products that are pre-marinated and cooked to utilize sophisticated technology during the manufacturing process.

Indeed, prepared/RTE foods processors continue to improve their injection and marination, mixing and combining, cooking and freezing, and packaging procedures with new technologies, which increase efficiencies and lower food-safety threats.

In recent years, few new technologies have hit the injection and marination or mixing and combining process, even though materials such as marinades always hold the possibility of becoming contaminated because they tend to be recycled. That’s about to change as Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) researchers experiment with new disinfection and mixing systems.

Marination and mixing systemsTraditionally, disinfection systems only penetrate

about a millimeter into the marinades and brines used with prepared items, leaving the rest untouched. GTRI researchers, however, are experimenting with a new flow mechanism for mixing systems that will use UV light to disinfect all of the marinades and brines, says Gary McMurray, principal research engineer and division chief for the Food Processing Technology Division, GTRI.

The institute is also researching micro-channel technology as a means to better facilitate the mixing of products, particularly emulsified products. Instead of relying on large vats to mix the products, which can’t accurately control pressure, sheer force and temperatures (so products tend to be mixed longer than needed to ensure they are mixed well), researchers are examining if 15-mm to 25-mm-sized tubes would do a better job.

Processors would, in essence, be controlling from the outside how much product is fed into these new channels. Since the tubes are small, processors could see the exact relationship of pressure to product, control the temperature in the tubes and manage the

prepared/ready-to-eat teChnology Journal

NOVEMbER 2009 | PROVISIONERONLINE.COM | THE NATIONAL PROVISIONER 23

Part one: tecHnoLoGy oVerVIeW

Processors also could use the same imaging system and infrared camera to estimate the amount of product heat going into the freezer, so they can set freezer temperatures more accurately to absorb a load’s heat.

A technology that has been around for decades but is just taking off now with sausages and sausage items is co-extrusion, notes Jeff Sindelar, Ph.D., assistant professor and extension meat specialist, Meat Science & Muscle Biology Laboratory, University of Wisconsin at Madison. In essence, the sausage and its casing are produced at the same time through an automated process which emits a continuous flow of meat batter (the sausage) and the outside layer of gel (the casing). Before, processors filled prefabricated casings with the meat batter.

“The co-extrusion system is an improvement due to its sheer economic standpoint: it increases consistency, throughput and decreases the cost of the casings because processors just have to purchase a casing manufacturing ingredient instead of a casing product,” says Sindelar.

The process also decreases food-safety threats because the cooked or smoked product can be packaged in a partially-cooked state, cooked in water to kill pathogens and chilled all in the same package, without being handled — and possibly contaminated — by employees.

For a few years now, Sara Lee has been carrying co-extruded smoked ring sausage, and Hillshire Farm offers co-extruded sausage made from beef or turkey.

Automated water cooking systems are another new technology being utilized today. Similar to the co-extrusion method, a packaged product is cooked in a water bath or medium. So, the cooking process takes place in the same equipment, says Sindelar.

Natural and organic processors are also using alternative processes to meet the demands of consumers and government guidelines, which forbid using traditional chemical preservatives, he says. Instead of using traditional curing agents such as nitrate and/or nitrite for cured meats, processors are replacing them with systems that use ingredients with high nitrate content, like vegetable-based ingredients, and a nitrate-reducing starter culture to simulate curing. In general, Sindelar notes, many processors are beginning to use more natural ingredients and antimicrobials.

Texturized vegetable-based proteins are also increasingly being used as natural extenders in red meat and poultry products to reduce costs, extend

prepared/ready-to-eat foods teChnology Journal


WWW.SCOTTPEC.COM

d e s i g n . c A

Docket:

Client: Scott Process Equipment

Edward TautkusContact:Job:Size: 3.375 x4.875

Designer:Production:Director: Dale Benvenuto

Dale Benvenuto

ApprovedDesigner

ApprovedProofread

ApprovedProj. Mgr

IMPORTANT: Although every effort has been made to esnure accuracy, errors can occur. Please check this proof/PDFfiles carefully. This colour proof is for colourbreak only and may not accurately reflect final printed inks.© Copyright 2009. Rivet Design. All rights reserved.

NOTES: • Artwork created usingAdobe Illustrator CS

Perforated Certificat at bottom.

File Name: Phase: Date:

Date

:

Appro

ved b

y Cl

ient:

YELLOWCYAN MAGENTA BLACK

PMS123

1727 Scott_qtr_pg_ad.eps 1 Oct.23/09

PRINT COLOURS

[email protected]

416-418-5384

EXPLORETHE KEY FEATURES OF THESCOTT SMOKEHOUSE

EXPLORETHE KEY FEATURES OF THESCOTT SMOKEHOUSE

Tel: 905-607-5507 • Toll Free: 1-888-343-5421

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESSSMOKING HOT/COLD • COOKINGDRYING • ROASTING • BAKING

SMOKING HOT/COLD • COOKINGDRYING • ROASTING • BAKING

Photo courtesy of West Liberty Foods

Can Your Plant Precisely Split 650 Hogs Per Hour?

Right Down The Middle - Every Time?No? Call Us!

Higher production rates Faster line operations Uniform feather bone division Clean splits with minimum sawdust

Jarvis’ Automatic Hog Splitter Higher amounts of specialty products Easier spinal cord removal More bones for meat recovery systems Rugged construction and dependability

Jarvis has the Machine!

Jarvis Products Corporation33 Anderson Road, Middletown, CT 06457Tel: (860) 347-7271Fax: (860) 347-9905E-mail: [email protected]://www.jarvisproducts.com

View Automatic Hog Splitter information at our website!

In operation for over five years!

U.S. and Foreign Patents

NP11094JAR.indd 1 10/7/09 10:14:02 AM

shelf life, counteract pathogens and improve product flavor, texture and satiety, says Herring. Many are manufactured by thermoplastics extrusion and extend or replace meat as an ingredient.

Packaging systemsThe greening of the prepared/

RTE market extends to its packaging, as well. A major emphasis in the processed market, in fact, is on reducing waste, through green and sustainable programs.

Consumer desire for products and packages that utilize resources more efficiently and have less impact on the environment are driving the technology advances — and marketing campaigns — for biodegradable/reusable packaging and more “natural” minimally processed foods.

“Like always, waste reduction makes good business sense, but like never before, it makes good marketing sense too,” says Tim Bowser, Ph.D., associate professor, food process engineer, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Oklahoma State University. “Green and sustainable products and packages simply sell better.”

Processors are also reviewing new methods to detect tears in packaging. Georgia Tech Research Institute researchers have created a system that detects tears with machine vision, not through handling the product.

“The current equipment processes are pretty well defined and highly accurate,” says McMurray. “However, things still happen. So having a system to detect tears in a non-contact manner has value too.”


Call Admix today at

1-800-466-2369 See it in Action! Visit our website

www.admix.com/fastfeed.htm

Ingredients Giving You

N I GHTMARES?

With the Fastfeed

from Admix, You’ll Rest Easy!

FEEDS:• Consistent powder feed rates

up to 400 pounds per minute

• Handles higher viscosity marinades

DISPERSES:• Wet out and instantly disperse with

no fish-eyes or agglomerates

• Field proven on phosphates, sugars, starches, soy, carrageenan and more

You need a better way tomix powdersinto liquids.

NP10094AD.indd 1 10/1/09 2:27:17 PM

Quick, clean and fully adjustable.

Setting new standards for sausage cutting.

NP11094NU.indd 1 10/21/09 3:55:43 PM

NP0308REM.indd 1 2/12/08 9:35:10 AM

from a specific market.

Preventing contaminationStopping cross-contamination before a product is

packaged is the most critical issue today for processors. Contamination can be caused by the environment that is external to a food process (for example, airborne contaminants and warm temperatures) or the internal environment (e.g. microbial populations on food contact surfaces), notes Bowser.

It would seem simple to prevent cross-contamination, but RTE products could easily contact raw product during processing and if workers do not take care to ensure those products remain as aseptic as possible.

Moreover, plants can provide a host of environmental concerns, such as overhead moisture dripping on to products and higher temperatures and humidity allowing increased microbial growth.

All meat and poultry processors are extremely concerned about food safety, efficiency and productivity. But in the RTE market, food safety is inextricably linked with production basics. Many opportunities for contamination continue to exist during the manufacturing process, such as during slicing and packing, repackaging and handling during post-heating.

“If a worker during the post-processing phase does not act responsibly, the entire process up to that point was a waste,” says Herring.

The biggest food-safety concern — barring those that cause illness or death — is a situation that shuts down large-scale processors or excludes a category of products from a given market, Bowser says.

“Massive product recall is an example of a disaster that can close a company forever,” he explains. Also, the food-safety crisis may violate an international trade agreement that results in a blanket ban of the product



Part tWo: food safety

.

FREE

SPIRAL T

ENSION T

EST

CALL NOW

- $5

00 V

alue

(lim

ited ti

me

offer)

High Tension will Shorten Your Life

High Belt Tension will cause Your Spiral to BreakdownEliminate High Belt Tension with a FREE Spiral Belt Tension Test

[email protected]

Over 40 years ago, Ashworth invented Spirals and named them “Lotension” – because low belt tensions improve spiral performance, prevent breakdowns and extend belt life. Ashworth has performed tension tests on numerous spirals and found most operating above their manufacturer’s rating. Ashworth can test your spiral to prevent unexpected, time consuming and expensive breakdowns. It’s fast, easy, and one phone call away.

Free Yourself from High Tension - Contact Ashworth Factory Service

NP03094ASH2.indd 1 2/23/09 9:47:42 AM

handling product aseptically can always be improved, as well as verifying that employees are following procedures as trained.

“In the end, it comes down to process and people more than technology,” Sindelar explains.

Biofilm, in essence a grouping of microorganisms that can allow bacteria to grow within it, can even form on equipment surfaces before and during processing. The stainless-steel equipment may look clean, but its cracks could have bacteria hiding in them that resist cleaning, grow protected in the biofilm, and expand until they break open and come into contact with meat.

“That creates a big problem for products if they then don’t get a heat or lethality treatment after touching a packaging surface, for example,” says Lynn Knipe, Ph.D., extension processed meats specialist at Ohio State University.

sticking with the basics According to Bowser, manufacturers and distributors

should fight bacterial contamination by “sticking with the basics.” A processor can never go wrong by continuously examining, improving and reinforcing GAPs, GMPs, SOPs and similar programs. Frequent third-party reviews and evaluations are also recommended. In addition, mock situations like a product recall should be practiced to gain further improvements.

“Analysis of historical events in the same and similar industries can help guide a firm in decisions and actions to prevent future problems,” says Bowser.

In the last five to 10 years, many companies have also started combining antimicrobial agents with post-packaging pasteurization, a 25-year-old technology that re-heats product to kill any Listeria monocytogenes that may be lurking on the surface, notes Knipe.

Employee training in cleaning, sanitizing and

processed,” he says.Herring also points out that other production concerns

are tracking/lotting/recording raw material origins, as well as not being able to track or record finished RTE products’ physical location and abuse (their temperature and time of exposure).

The prepared-foods production process has many stop and start conditions that are sometimes very difficult to control, because most processes are designed for uniform flow and throughput. The performance of depositors, temperature controllers, fillers and other equipment may be less than adequate during these unsteady startup and shutdown conditions, notes Bowser.

“Most automated processes perform at their best at or near design set points,” he says. “Even manually controlled processes function better when throughput is uniform and human operators suffer less stress when they don’t need to make as many decisions.”

Many factors affect the manufacturing process, such as cooking procedures, disinfection methods and keeping packaging intact, but there aren’t a lot of sophisticated controls in place. Until a few years ago, water jet cutters and conveyors were the only automated systems in these plants.

“The problem is developing the right models and getting equipment to survive in these environments,” McMurray says.

Any breakdowns in plant controls can certainly lead to food-safety problems. The loss of process control, according to Bowser, is the condition that occurs when a critical-control point is not achieved. So if a lethality step is not reached, the process is deemed “out of control.”

“Many processors do not achieve a high level of statistical process control and therefore may produce a greater percentage of product that is improperly



Part tHree: ProductIon BasIcs

Pete Boylan Joe SchmidtBerks Packing Reiser

725 Dedham St., Canton, MA 02021 • (781) 821-1290 • www.reiser.com Leading the food industry in processing and packaging solutions.

“When it came to our new high-speedhot dog packaging line, no one couldkeep pace with Reiser and Repak.”

“At Berks Packing Company, we are a third-generation, family-owned and operated meatprocessor. We supply the food service industry andretailers with a wide variety of high-quality hot dogs.We were looking for a flexible, high-speed, automaticloading and packaging system that would allow usto easily produce upwards of twenty differentpackage sizes. After talking with all of the potentialsuppliers, we chose the Repak RE25 form/fill/seal

packaging machine from Reiser.“Reiser came to us with more options and better ideas. They took us to see a similar

high-speed installation in Canada. The more we talked with Reiser, the more confidentwe became that the Repak would be the race car we needed. And they delivered!

“The Repak works perfectly with our high-speed automatic loader to produceattractive, wrinkle-free, perfectly sealed packages. Depending on the package size, wecan now package up to 1,400 hot dogs/minute. From sales, to support, to delivery, toinstallation, to their guarantee, our family couldn’t be happier with the Reiser team. Infact, we’re so pleased with the performance of our new RE25 that we just placed anorder for an additional machine!”

Pete Boylan, Product Development Manager, Berks Packing Company, Inc.

NP06094REIS.indd 1 5/13/09 11:42:07 AM

800.570.1985

If you feel you’re getting the same prepackagedsolutions everyone else is, consider the firmranked No. 1 in food processing* andselected by some of the biggestfood processors in the world.

Jacobs will steer youin the right direction.

Go to www.jacobs.com/beefto download our exclusivewhite paper.

Have a beef withyour facility design?

engineeringarchitectureprocess integrationrefrigeration system design& engineeringLEED & sustainable designsanitary designdesign-buildEPCM project delivery *Engineering News-Record 2009

“The nuts and bolts and fundamentals of the business remain the same, but the tools are different,” says Scott Schallenberger, director of product and process development, West Liberty Foods, referring to technology advancements in prepared foods processing.

West Liberty Foods, The National Provisioner’s 2009 Processor of the Year, based in West Liberty, Iowa, continues to grow during a tough economy and share its food-safety knowledge with the rest of the industry. Schallenberger and Gerald Lessard, COO, explain how their use of new technologies in clean

room technology, defrosting systems and commercialization process are improving their manufacturing operations.

The poultry, pork and beef processor begins by using de-frosting technology that leads to no yield losses, temperature abuse and shorter defrosting timeframes. In the past, processors would put 45- to 50-ton boxes in a room to defrost over seven to 10 days, leaving large amounts of meat juice on the floor. Or they would put the meat into plastic bags, place them in water and then turn up the water temperature to thaw the product, losing 6 percent

to 7 percent in water soluble meat protein, notes Schallenberger.

Now the company’s product is put into glycol jacket tumblers, the temperature is raised and lowered, and some steam injection is employed. The result? Product is defrosted in six to seven hours, instead of what was once 48 hours, with no protein loss and improved microbial standards.

Then, before the product moves through the commercialization process, all brine is tested with a chloride analyzer, instead of the traditional salometer, before it can proceed forward.



Part four: Best PractIces

Contact us: [email protected]

The Meat-IndustrySoftwareExperts

Delivering Unparalleled Results by CombiningExceptional People with World-Class Software

CSB-System is a leading developer of innovative software solutions for theMeat Industry. We understand howcomplicated your business is and the management controls you must haveto stay on top of the ever changing marketplace. Our solutions combine the right people with the right tools to ensure increased ef ciency stronger customer relationships and maximumpro ts.

CSB-System softwareprovides resources for:

Enterprise Resource PlanningSupply Chain ManagementWarehouse Management SystemsShop-Floor SolutionsYield Optimization & ProductCostingTraceability Livestock Solutions

NP11094CSB.indd 1 10/7/09 1:56:48 PM

Product enters clean rooms that are highly sanitized and controlled environments free of contaminants, notes Lessard. As part of this process, West Liberty Foods, for example, requires its employees to wear sanitized encapsulated suits before entering any of the slicing cells, and replace them when leaving.

“In the last 10 to 15 years, food safety has changed rather dramatically,” says Schallenberger. “The number of people in the antimicrobial business is four times what it used to be, and our understanding is much better.”

The high-speed slicers in the

company’s Tremonton, Utah, facility also allow for faster and computerized systems that can produce more throughput and various configurations, says Lessard.

In meat and poultry processing, robotics have been used before with packaging, but West Liberty Foods is also using them on the raw manufacturing side to lift and load raw logs that weigh more than 100 pounds.

“Robotics allows us to increase our slicing yield [and] throughput outputs, and decrease mistakes,” says Schallenberger. “There is no way it would be possible to move those logs manually.” NP

NOVEMbER 2009 | PROVISIONERONLINE.COM | THE NATIONAL PROVISIONER 33

exclusive 2009 tech journal series prepared/ ready-to-eat foods … · 2011. 3. 17. · prepared...

Documents