Thawing Meat at Room Temperature
Can we thaw frozen meat (beef, chicken, lamb and pork) at room temperature but with control measure in place which is supervisor measure thawed meat temperature every 2 hours using IR Themometer and recorded. Once the frozen meat reached chilled temperature (0-5 deg Celcius), staff will put these meat in chiller.
Control measure based on 2 hour 4 hour rule where once food in danger zone and chilled temperature have lower growth of bacteria.
Kindly advice if this practice is okay.
You're idea is sound, but I would check it more often than every two hours as total time to -0.5 will vary wildly
I don't think that we do this where I am from (west Europe). The local bodies do not allow room temperature thawing.
The maximum temperature for raw meat is also 4degrees (2degrees for organ meat).
The method you are describing is more likely to fail than just putting it in the chiller on time.
I can also imagine that Malaysia is a bit warmer than Europe, causing the outside/ends of the meat being a higher temperature, causing bacteria growth spoilage on the outside layer.
Assuming "room temperature" is somewhere north of 15°C that's probably no good.
Without typing out a full hazard analysis, I see it likely the process you describe would end up being a CCP due to high risk of microbiological growth at room temperature and it being likely (or worse) to occur if the temp checks are not frequent enough or missed. Beyond that, I think most of the GFSI schemes require thawing be performed at temperatures that control pathogens as well. I would suggest that it's best to perform your thawing in the meat chiller you mentioned is available.
Can we thaw frozen meat (beef, chicken, lamb and pork) at room temperature but with control measure in place which is supervisor measure thawed meat temperature every 2 hours using IR Themometer and recorded. Once the frozen meat reached chilled temperature (0-5 deg Celcius), staff will put these meat in chiller.
Control measure based on 2 hour 4 hour rule where once food in danger zone and chilled temperature have lower growth of bacteria.
Kindly advice if this practice is okay.
Hi PP,
afaik, quoted rules are based on core temperature.
An idea of risk can be done via a trial run. If large items, my guess is a very substantial time will occur.
Frozen fish is IMEX typically thawed overnight in tanks of stirred water with water temperature max 10degC.