5 replies to this topic

[highlind chick]

Hi, we are currently thinking of undertaking raw fish production on our premises which would involve the whole production area from changing. Currently we have different refrigerated chills for poultry and one for vegetables. Is it possible to store raw poultry and fish in the same chill without the chance of taint or other factors which my affect the quality of our poultry? If not can i store poultry and vegetables in the same chill or is this deemed as unsatifactory?

Also does anyone have any information or know sources of information which i may find helpful on the following areas?
- changing a production area (still need to have my flow from raw to high risk is essential)
- fish production and how this could affect my buisness

As any work (construction) would not take place until next year I feel it will be hard to incorporate another production with the premises we already have.

The company who could be coming in to do the fish production are not accreditated as we are to the BRC so I will have to write a manual for them. Can i just incorporate it into my own manual, at present we produce stocks, terrines etc and boned out poultry.

Hope thats not too many questions. Any help, guidance or anything will be extremly appreciated. Many thanks in advance

[Charles.C]

Dear highlind chick,

Traditionally, IMEX, mixing poultry with fish has been one of the food processing "thou shalt nots".
A major reason is salmonella (in poultry). Nonetheless I hv (rarely) inspectorially encountered cold stores (-18degC) holding both frozen products (bought in) with substantial physical segregations which I (reluctantly) accepted but any proximate preliminary processing is frowned upon.

Hv also met various ingenious proposals to separate processing lines but the over-riding principle has usually dominated.

Interested to see if other people here hv same experience.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Jean]

Is it possible to store raw poultry and fish in the same chill without the chance of taint or other factors which my affect the quality of our poultry? If not can i store poultry and vegetables in the same chill or is this deemed as unsatifactory?

Dear HC,



I don’t know if my suggestion would be suitable in a production unit as I am sharing my experience from a catering point of view.

The whole chilled fish which we receive are stored in separate chillers to avoid the fishy taint. After the fish is cleaned, sliced and packed then it can be stored in the same chiller (Walk- in & reach-in) but segregated.

We do have a separate chiller for vegetables when stored in bulk. At the same time, small quantities of vegetables or poultry or fish (pre-processed) for the satellite kitchens are stored in the same chiller but completely segregated.



We have different preparation areas for fish and poultry too.

[highlind chick]

Hi,

Thank you for your replies. The fish production will be taking part in an ajoining room but there is no door to seperate these two areas. The poultry production is quite small, one worker, and this will take place as far away from the fish production as possible. There is also talk of maybe having the fish production take place at night when the other production has been completed to stop any cross contamination. Another worry however is we only have one wash area and I feel that this is not good for fish, poultry, raw materials and cooked products. Incorporating fish into what we do just now is very difficult but with the econmic climate I dont see where else we can go to produce the profits which are needed. Again any help is greatly appreciated.

[FoodTechDirect]

Hi there, I am also looking into designing a factory and would like to know more about the Good Manufacturing practices related to meat processing.

can anyone direct me to this information?

I'm interested in:
I understand that chicken and beef should not be processed in the same room at the same time. however does that apply to the same 'production line' or should I be viewing that in terms of ' I cant run beef meat balls in same room as I am processing chicken patties?' even through they are different production lines?

I am being pushed towards designing a spiral chiller conveyor that handles raw and cooked product. This seams a very bad idea to me due to cross contamination. However the client is sure they can do this if they clean the area between production runs (apart from the the obvious issues with cleaning a belt that operates at freezing temperatures...) I would assume that it is not acceptable to run raw and cooked meat product on the same production line even after a thorough clean.

Can any one shed any light on this?

Very grateful for your help.

Kind Regards

Kiwi

Edited by FoodTechDirect, 18 November 2008 - 10:43 PM.

[Charles.C]

Dear FTD,

Hi there, I am also looking into designing a factory and would like to know more about the Good Manufacturing practices related to meat processing.

Maybe the Meat Industry Guide, link here -

http://www.food.gov....uidehygienemeat

Not a beef specialist but the usual requirement for a deep frozen seafood product line for a fully cooked item is complete physical separation of the cooked product segment up to the shared final cold room (-18degC). This includes all the cooking, packing crews also.

Rgds / Charles.C

PS - BTW Welcome to the forum !