ARS | Publication request: HACCP TO DEVELOP SAFE FOOD COOLING, THE SHELF-LIFE LIMITS OF THE CHILLED FOOD FOR A NEW PROCESS IN A RETAIL OPERATION

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: July 7, 2007
Publication Date: July 8, 2007
Citation: Juneja, V.K. 2007. Haccp to develop safe food cooling, the shelf-life limits of the chilled food for a new process in a retail operation. Meeting Abstract.

Technical Abstract: Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a prevention based food safety system that identifies and monitors specific food safety hazards that can adversely affect the safety of food products. The Critical Control Point in a cooked roast beef plant is to cool the product’s internal temperature from 120 to 55F in less than or equal to 6 hours and continue to cool to 41F for less than 12.6 hours total, for a less than or equal to 1-log increase of Clostridium perfringens (USDA Draft Compliance Guidelines for Ready-To-Eat Meat and Poultry Products, 2001). Spore-forming pathogens, such as Clostridium perfringens, Bacillus cereus, and Clostridium botulinum, are potential hazards during cooling. This is because the surviving heat-activated spores will germinate, outgrow and multiply if rate and extent of cooling is slow. Food temperatures during cooling are monitored by chart to ensure that critical limits are met. If a product is not cooled from 120 to 55F in 6 hours, the HACCP team reviews and make disposition recommendations. The cause of the deviation is determined and prophylactic measures are taken to prevent recurrence. Hazards are not of any concern when food is removed after it gets to less than or equal to 41F and transferred to refrigerator for further cooling to 34F in less than 48 hours. However, non-proteolytic Clostridium botulinum spores pose health hazard during storage at common refrigeration temperatures during the shelf-life of the chilled foods because of their ability to germinate, outgrow and multiply into deadly neurotoxin producing vegetative cells at refrigeration temperatures.