Thermal Processing of Ready-to-Eat Meat Products
April 8-10, 2008
The Ohio State University
Food Safety Beyond the Guidelines and Regulations - Dr. Brad Marks, Michigan State University
Growth in the ready-to-eat (RTE) market sector and evolving federal regulations are creating a need for better information related to inactivation and growth of pathogens in meat and poultry products. Regulatory changes are shifting the burden to processors to ensure, through scientific rationale, that a new or modified process meets lethality and stabilization performance standards. Although product and process parameters are known to affect thermal resistance of bacteria, most reported information is from laboratory studies that encompass a limited range of conditions. In most cases, the validity of this information for commercial processes is uncertain. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to address three questions: (1) how does the scientific domain of the performance standards for RTE products relate to the current state-of-knowledge, (2) what is currently known about various factors that might affect thermal inactivation of pathogens in meat and poultry products, and (3) what should be done to account for these complicating factors, now and in the future.