7 replies to this topic

[jcieslowski]

Strange one.

We had a bird die on our product storage bin. (Raw agricultural commodity) it was delivered to our production room via water flume system and into a rotary peeler. In the peeler it was resenting shaved and skin was removed. Exiting the peeler it encounters a visual inspection table which is where it was found. Beyond that station is a hydrology conveyor, corkscrew conveyor, hopper, slicer, rotary wash basket, air knife, and fryer.

We've shut down production for the day with the intent to throw everything away before the fryer and sanitize.

I don't personally think anything made it to the fryer but there is concern about what it would mean if it did. Oil temperature is over 300 degrees.

Any thoughts on what might need to be done in the fryer. Any other thoughts about it? This is a new one for me.

[KTD]

I assume that USDA FSIS is involved, as this would appear to be both a regulatory (all birds to be humanly killed and no birds dead pre-hang) and a HACCP issue.

The concern will be determining why it died - natural causes, suffocation, disease - so you can determine the potential for wider contamination.

 

KTD

[Setanta]

Do you reuse your water?
Can you disassemble and clean the peeler and it's blades?
Has everything after the inspection table has been disassembled, cleaned, and sanitized...and documented?
If you can start with new oil and a cleaned oil reservoir, do it.

[jcieslowski]

Update in case anyone cares.  We are not a bird processing facility nor USDA.  We're a FDA snack facility.  The bird flew in with our agricultural commodity and, presumably, was crushed / knocked / buried in it.  

 

We stopped production for the day, destroyed any product made, and sanitized everything.  

 

Thanks

[MangoPie]

Thank you for posting this interesting challenge. I'm not equipped to answer (new member here), but I am interested in seeing what others suggest.

[jfrey123]

It sounds like you handled it well, not knowing all details of your process.  I would have opted for disposing of all product made and the input lot as well, and sanitized the entire line.  Beyond your fryer, there's likely little chance of micro-contamination based on your described temperatures, but the exposure of any bird pieces as FM would have been an unacceptable risk in my book.

 

It'll be worth reviewing your input procedures.  There's always a chance of unintentionally importing animals from the fields, so if this is a process where you're farm to package, you'll want to identify if you can eliminate the chance of this happening again (or catch the animal in raw before you begin processing).  If the raw material came from a vendor, time to file a complaint and evaluate that vendor again.

[DFFS]

It sounds like you handled it well, not knowing all details of your process.  I would have opted for disposing of all product made and the input lot as well, and sanitized the entire line.  Beyond your fryer, there's likely little chance of micro-contamination based on your described temperatures, but the exposure of any bird pieces as FM would have been an unacceptable risk in my book.

 

It'll be worth reviewing your input procedures.  There's always a chance of unintentionally importing animals from the fields, so if this is a process where you're farm to package, you'll want to identify if you can eliminate the chance of this happening again (or catch the animal in raw before you begin processing).  If the raw material came from a vendor, time to file a complaint and evaluate that vendor again.

When you say you would have disposed of all product made, are you meaning all product made after the discovery of the bird body, or would that potentially mean all product made since the last sanitation shift because that bird body could've been floating around in the water flume (caught in machinery or whatnot) for who knows how long? 

[jfrey123]

When you say you would have disposed of all product made, are you meaning all product made after the discovery of the bird body, or would that potentially mean all product made since the last sanitation shift because that bird body could've been floating around in the water flume (caught in machinery or whatnot) for who knows how long? 

 

I intended to mean all product that could have been touched by and related to that bird, it would depend on results of your investigation.