USE OF A TEMPERATURE FUNCTION INTEGRATION TECHNIQUE TO ASSESS THE MAINTENANCE OF CONTROL OVER AN OFFAL COOLING PROCESS

Over a 6 months period, temperature histories were routinely collected by staff at a beef packing plant from boxes of hearts and livers pass ing through an offal cooling process. The time of logger placement, th e position of the monitored box within a product stack and the positio n of the stack within the freezer were recorded for each temperature h istory. Each temperature history was integrated with respect to a mode l describing the dependency on temperature of the anaerobic growth of Escherichia coli. The E. coli proliferation values were not significan tly effected by the times of logger placement, the in-stack positions of monitored boxes or the freezer location of monitored stacks. The ro utinely, non-randomly collected data were comparable with those random ly collected in a previous assessment of the process. Simple control c harts indicated the maintenance of control over the process. Temperatu re function integration data can apparently be applied in commercial c ircumstances for the control of meat cooling processes, as part a Haza rd Analysis: Critical Control Point (HACCP) System.