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New developments in food decontamination
CONFERENCE REPORT New developments in food decontamination
Christian James of the MAFF Fellowship provided an overview of the issues and practicalities of applying decontamination treatments to raw meat and ® sh. He recommended that research efforts should be concentrated on physical methods of meat decontamination. The engineering problems of achieving rapid time temperature treatments on whole carcasses and primal cuts were a prime challenge. The afternoon session chaired by Colin Bailey saw an emphasis on decontamination methods. Presentations covered reports on the feasibility of as yet unproven technologies:- air ions from Dr Jane Sutherland of IFR Reading; the effectiveness of commercially available systems; Nigel Down of CVP Bosely plc on UV; and David King of Rhone-Poulenc on the AvGard trisodium phosphate process. Ion generators kill microorganisms on an electrically conductive surface using a stream of electrically-charged ions. The technique is used in dentistry and medicine and the IFR has shown its potential for food processing. Commercial trials on a UV tunnel for pork cuts have been successfully carried out and a system is available in the UK. The AvGard system is already used for poultry in theUSA andtrialshavebeen carried outin manyEU countries. While the use of organic acids to decontaminate meat has been extensively researched, the development of practical application systems has not yet followed. New work at Silsoe Research Institute, presented by David Tinker, aims to de® ne the design parameters required for commercially treating poultry carcasses. The presentations were rounded off by Stephen James (director of FRPERC) with the results of work on the use of microwaves to decontaminate poultry and details of MAFF and EU projects on the use of steam and organic acids to decontaminate a variety of products. Research has shown that despite the many claims that microwaves can be used to rapidly decontaminate meat, microwave heating is unreliable. Problems of nonuniformity of heating have not been suf® ciently addressed in previous work and there is little evidence of bacterial reductions without over heating. The condensation of steam onto the surface of a food followed by rapid cooling offers a better alternative. Rapid cycles of heating and cooling are essential to prevent cooking and this presents many engineering challenges on a commercial basis. To help meet these challenges CFD is being used to model likely process vessel con® gurations. The symposium was well attended and a targeted approach to appeal to industry paid off with the majority of 80 attendees coming from food companies and equipment manufacturers. The positive response to the day has encouraged the MAFF Fellowship to plan a follow up symposium for later in the year to cover the progress of the current projects. Anyone interested in purchasing the Decontamination Review should contact Liz Williams on 0117 928 9292 or fax an order on 0117 938 9314.
This highly successful one day symposium held on the 20th March 1997 was organised by the MAFF Fellowship in Food Process Engineering at the University of Bristol and the IChemE Food and Drink Subject group. The symposium contained a wide range of presentations covering commercial decontamination systems and current research projects on food contamination and decontamination, with an emphasis on the area of meat decontamination. A secondary purpose of the day was to distribute and publicise a recently completed review by the MAFF Fellowship on this subject, `Past, Present and Future Methods of Meat Decontamination’ . This comprehensive review covering all aspects of meat decontamination formed part of the delegate pack for the symposium. The morning session chaired by MAFF Programme Manager Dr Terry Roberts covered the in¯ uence of plant hygiene on product hygiene. Dr Keith Brown from CCFRA (Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association) presented work on the monitoring and modelling of microbial air contamination in high care production areas. He demonstrated how a combination of computational ¯ uid dynamics (CFD) and microbial sampling could be used to model the movement of airborne bacterial contamination in high care areas. He also described a newly started project on localised environmental control of chilled food preparation areas which aims to help design systems which would provide controlled conditions where they are needed in high risk food preparation areas. At present the temperature of many food preparation areas is a compromise between the low temperature required for the product and the higher temperature required for worker comfort. Dr Brown considered the advantages of providing low temperature air to speci® c regions and discussed some of the methods being contemplated in the project. Judith Evans of the University of Bristol’ s FRPERC (Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre) presented the results of a MAFF project on bacterial contamination of refrigeration systems. This work has shown through a survey of food factories that the cooling coils in chill rooms of most factories are rarely cleaned. Experimental studies that reproduced the conditions found in industry demonstrated that a clean cooling coil could not support bacterial growth. The studies showed that bacteria can be readily transferred into the air from contaminated coils. Easily cleanable coils and the development of ef® cient cleaning systems were required. One method of ef® ciently disinfecting coils and other surfaces is fogging. While fogging is widely used in the industry according to Dr Dean Burfoot, Silsoe Research Institute, the industry is following a `belt and braces’ approach to its application. Work at Silsoe Research Institute is hoping to focus on de® ning the mechanisms that control the movements and deposition of droplets and quantifying the bacteriological control that can be achieved. Trans I ChemE, Vol 75, Part C, June 1997
Christian James MAFF Fellowship 149
Christian James of the MAFF Fellowship provided an overview of the issues and practicalities of applying decontamination treatments to raw meat and ® sh. He recommended that research efforts should be concentrated on physical methods of meat decontamination. The engineering problems of achieving rapid time temperature treatments on whole carcasses and primal cuts were a prime challenge. The afternoon session chaired by Colin Bailey saw an emphasis on decontamination methods. Presentations covered reports on the feasibility of as yet unproven technologies:- air ions from Dr Jane Sutherland of IFR Reading; the effectiveness of commercially available systems; Nigel Down of CVP Bosely plc on UV; and David King of Rhone-Poulenc on the AvGard trisodium phosphate process. Ion generators kill microorganisms on an electrically conductive surface using a stream of electrically-charged ions. The technique is used in dentistry and medicine and the IFR has shown its potential for food processing. Commercial trials on a UV tunnel for pork cuts have been successfully carried out and a system is available in the UK. The AvGard system is already used for poultry in theUSA andtrialshavebeen carried outin manyEU countries. While the use of organic acids to decontaminate meat has been extensively researched, the development of practical application systems has not yet followed. New work at Silsoe Research Institute, presented by David Tinker, aims to de® ne the design parameters required for commercially treating poultry carcasses. The presentations were rounded off by Stephen James (director of FRPERC) with the results of work on the use of microwaves to decontaminate poultry and details of MAFF and EU projects on the use of steam and organic acids to decontaminate a variety of products. Research has shown that despite the many claims that microwaves can be used to rapidly decontaminate meat, microwave heating is unreliable. Problems of nonuniformity of heating have not been suf® ciently addressed in previous work and there is little evidence of bacterial reductions without over heating. The condensation of steam onto the surface of a food followed by rapid cooling offers a better alternative. Rapid cycles of heating and cooling are essential to prevent cooking and this presents many engineering challenges on a commercial basis. To help meet these challenges CFD is being used to model likely process vessel con® gurations. The symposium was well attended and a targeted approach to appeal to industry paid off with the majority of 80 attendees coming from food companies and equipment manufacturers. The positive response to the day has encouraged the MAFF Fellowship to plan a follow up symposium for later in the year to cover the progress of the current projects. Anyone interested in purchasing the Decontamination Review should contact Liz Williams on 0117 928 9292 or fax an order on 0117 938 9314.
This highly successful one day symposium held on the 20th March 1997 was organised by the MAFF Fellowship in Food Process Engineering at the University of Bristol and the IChemE Food and Drink Subject group. The symposium contained a wide range of presentations covering commercial decontamination systems and current research projects on food contamination and decontamination, with an emphasis on the area of meat decontamination. A secondary purpose of the day was to distribute and publicise a recently completed review by the MAFF Fellowship on this subject, `Past, Present and Future Methods of Meat Decontamination’ . This comprehensive review covering all aspects of meat decontamination formed part of the delegate pack for the symposium. The morning session chaired by MAFF Programme Manager Dr Terry Roberts covered the in¯ uence of plant hygiene on product hygiene. Dr Keith Brown from CCFRA (Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association) presented work on the monitoring and modelling of microbial air contamination in high care production areas. He demonstrated how a combination of computational ¯ uid dynamics (CFD) and microbial sampling could be used to model the movement of airborne bacterial contamination in high care areas. He also described a newly started project on localised environmental control of chilled food preparation areas which aims to help design systems which would provide controlled conditions where they are needed in high risk food preparation areas. At present the temperature of many food preparation areas is a compromise between the low temperature required for the product and the higher temperature required for worker comfort. Dr Brown considered the advantages of providing low temperature air to speci® c regions and discussed some of the methods being contemplated in the project. Judith Evans of the University of Bristol’ s FRPERC (Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre) presented the results of a MAFF project on bacterial contamination of refrigeration systems. This work has shown through a survey of food factories that the cooling coils in chill rooms of most factories are rarely cleaned. Experimental studies that reproduced the conditions found in industry demonstrated that a clean cooling coil could not support bacterial growth. The studies showed that bacteria can be readily transferred into the air from contaminated coils. Easily cleanable coils and the development of ef® cient cleaning systems were required. One method of ef® ciently disinfecting coils and other surfaces is fogging. While fogging is widely used in the industry according to Dr Dean Burfoot, Silsoe Research Institute, the industry is following a `belt and braces’ approach to its application. Work at Silsoe Research Institute is hoping to focus on de® ning the mechanisms that control the movements and deposition of droplets and quantifying the bacteriological control that can be achieved. Trans I ChemE, Vol 75, Part C, June 1997
Christian James MAFF Fellowship 149