11 replies to this topic

[Zeeshan]

1- Shall anybody clearify the technical difference between a Cold Room and a Cold Storage. Or both are same? If I'm wrong pls clearify me-A cold room is a working room where frozen food is thawed upto safe working temperature and a cold storage as its name indicates is a store maintained at low temperature ususally at freezing point.

2- What is the safe lead time to transfer the carcass to cold storage? (slaughtered/dressed chicken, goat or cow)

3- What is the safe range of working temperature for cutting and preparing meat.

4- For a medium-size food processing industry, whether is allowed or suitable to use commercial grade deep freezers instead of cold storages? What hazards are associated with the use of deep freezers as compared to cold storages?

Zeeshan

[Penard]

Hello Zeeshan,

I just try to answer your questions :

1 - A cold storage thanks to a cold room. Right, thawing a product in a cold room is a good manufacturing practice.

2 - The delay depends on your carcass; for instance you have to wait for 10 hours (I don't remember exactly) before a storage below 4°C, not so long for a chicken. If you want I can check in the european regulatory.

3 - Concerning the safe range of working temperature, the european union for instance requires a cold temperature below 12°C max., and the temperature inside the product below 6°C. So you have to get out the meat/ carcasse from storage just before working.

4 - It depends too on what you intend to do. If you want to freeze a product, yes, that's better to buy a deep freezer. Then you have several ways of freezing - with static freezer, or azot freezer, but I'm not comfortable enough to explain it to you. I just want to add that when you have to buy azot (N), and that's expensive but more efficient than 'static freezer'. It depends on your budget and your objectives. Concerning hazards, you have to be very very careful to the delay to freeze your product, the hygienic requirements, the cleaning plan and the quality of azot (N). GMP, oPRP or CCP? That is another question...

Don't hesitate to write if I'm wrong concerning your questions, because some technical english words are quite difficult to understand, perhaps I don't well understand your questions,

If someone want to add something or rectify one of my replies,

Regards,

Emmanuel.

[Zeeshan]

Dear Emmanuel,

Thanks for your reply.

I have some questions related to your reply.

1 - A cold storage thanks to a cold room.

Unfortunately i did not understand what this sentence means. would you pls explain.

2 - ....... If you want I can check in the european regulatory.

I will be thankful if you do so. And I will be more thankful if you discover any international regulatory along with european regulatory regarding this.

Regards,
Zeeshan.

[Charles.C]

Dear Zeeshan ,

Regarding yr first question, my personal experience is not with the specific meat products you refer however I had a quick look on the IT which suggested the terminology was similar. Emannuel may have direct knowledge of meat industry so he can correct me if I am in error. It is my experience that the meaning of these terms does vary around the world so the answer to yr queries may not be exactly perfect.

The link I used was –

http://www.fao.org/D...0098E00.htm#TOC

This contains a description –

A cold store basically incorporates a reception room, where fresh meat is received and inspected at a controlled room temperature between 8° and 12°C, dispatch and holding rooms at about 2–4 °C, and one or several cold chambers for meat and offal at appropriate storage temperature. It may incorporate a cutting and deboning room at a temperature between 8° and 12°C, a packaging room and a sales room, both with a low temperature and dew point at about 5° to 7°C. For freezing and frozen storage there are freezing tunnels or rooms at temperatures ranging from -30° to -45°C, and frozen storage chambers at a temperature to suit the intended storage period. General requirements are a machine room, offices and cloakroom.

other text usage in above link suggests that “cold room” and “cold store” have same meaning (holding of “deep” frozen product) which is my own experience (although in my area the temp. is typically required to be less than or equal to -18degC (= 0degF approx.).
The thawing function did not seem to have a special “named” room in above ref. ( the location of the reverse function is usually called a “chill” room in IMEX)

The above link also contains some info. relating to yr queries 2/3 to add to Emannuel’s nice reply.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Jarve]

Working in the frozen meat sector, I would say a "cold room" is typically <5C but >0C and is where people are working or sometimes frozen meat is thawing or "tempering" ready for chopping/mincing.

A "cold store" typically operates at temperatures between -4C to +4C and is where finished products are held ready for despatch.

We are one of the biggest users of Nitrogen for freezing in the UK however we do blast freeze some products and the target is to achive <5C in 4 hours.

However cook/chill operations mean that after cooking we reduce the temperature to <8C within 90 minutes, these products are then either sent through the nitrogen tunnel or blast chilled as described above.

Hope this helps.

[Penard]

Agree with Jarve concerning 'cold store' and 'cold room' - that's quite difficult for me sometimes to understand differences in english language ( ).

Jarve, do you have to reduce your temperature to <8°C within 90 mn because of internal procedures or british regulatory? It seems to me that european one doesn't require it.

Zeeshan, I will try not to forget to have a look at my personnal computer to help you as soon as possible!

Regards,

Emmanuel.

[Charles.C]

Dear All,

The information presented above - below suggests that the meaning of the terms requested by Zeeshan will depend on where you are geographically and what precise process you are referring to. I guess this is not surprising.
It’s not my direct area but after looking around on IT, the main variation appears to be concerning “chilled” and “frozen” processing / storage. I suspect the term “Cold Room” is infinitely flexible (also saw ‘Cold Storage Room” used once). The “room” temperatures required are a result primarily of the microbiological hygiene requirements and (partly) the limitations of people to work at low temperatures.

To illustrate, some examples are below ( most of the UK regulations quoted seem to have now been superceded by the encyclopaedic Meat Industry Guide (2006) illustrated at end of this post )–

(A) (“Theory” but see last reference below for current numbers.) –

The Department of Health has published guidance
on the Food Safety (Temperature Control) Regulations
1995 which gives advice on the types of foods which are
required to be held under temperature control. It also
gives guidance on the circumstances when the
Regulations allow some flexibility from the temperature
requirements including during food preparation. The
Regulations require that foods which are likely to support
the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms or the
formation of toxins be held at or below 8 °C (or above
63 °C). Certain tolerances are allowed. Other
temperature requirements for product specific foods are
given on page 3. Lower workroom temperatures in
premises where particular foodstuffs requiring
temperature control are produced, may be justified (see
paragraph 10).
(UK - Food safety regs 1995)

[B] -

"Cold store" means any premises, not being a part of approved meat products premises,
which store unpackaged meat products under refrigerated conditions.
(UK – Meat products Regs 1994)

[C] –
Cold Store
The cold store is spec'ed to run at 0 - 2 degrees C and is currently configured to hold 180 pallets with opportunity to increase if needed.
(Australia – Commercial advert 2006)

[D] -

7) Factories producing frozen food should also meet the following requirements:
a. The meat-cutting room should have temperature control equipment and the temperature should not exceed 20 degrees centigrade.
b. There should be suitable rooms respectively for chilling. quickfreezing and cold storage that are connected with the work rooms.
The temperature in the rooms for chilling should be kept between zero and 4 degrees centigrade.
The temperature of the room for quick-freezing should be maintained at -25 degrees centigrade or below. The frozen products cannot leave the room before their central temperature have dropped to -15 degrees centigrade or below (within 48 hours for meat products, 24 hours for poultry meat, and 14 hours for aquatic products).
The temperature of the cold store room should be maintained steadily at -18 degrees centigrade or below and the central temperature of the frozen products should be maintained at -15 degrees centigrade or below.
The cold store room should have automatic temperature recording device and mercury thermometer.
(China, draft 1984)

[E] –

h) suitable refrigeration equipment to enable the internal temperature of fresh meat to be maintained at not more than +7°C for carcases and cuts, +3°C for offal and -12°C for frozen fresh meat, such equipment to have a drainage system which avoids risk of contamination of fresh meat;
(UK – Fresh meat reg 1992)

[F] –

99.01 Definitions . For the purpose of this chapter', unless the context otherwise requires :
(1) "Cold storage" means the storage or keeping of articles of food at or below a temperature above zero of 50 degrees Fahrenheit in a cold storage warehouse .
(2) "Cold storage warehouse" means any place artificially cooled to or below a temperature above zero of 50 degrees Fahrenheit, in which articles of food are placed and held for 40 days of more .
(11) "Chill room" means a room or compartment for the chilling of meats which is capable of maintaining temperatures within 2 degrees Fahrenheit plus or minus of 35 degrees above zero Fahrenheit, with a' tolerance of 10 degrees Fahrenheit for a reasonable time after fresh food is put in for chilling.
(US – 1981)

[G] –

Food business operators producing … meat preparations … must ensure compliance with the following requirements.
D1. The work on meat must be organised in such a way as to prevent or minimise
contamination. To this end, food business operators must ensure in particular that the
meat used is:
(a) at a temperature of not more than 4°C for poultry, 3°C for offal and 7°C for other
meat; and
(b) brought into the preparation room progressively as needed.
D2. © Immediately after production,… meat preparations must be wrapped or
packaged and be:
(i) chilled to an internal temperature of not more than 4°C; or
(ii) frozen to an internal temperature of not more than -18°C.
These temperature conditions must be maintained during storage and transport.
853/2004 Annex III Section V Hygiene During Cutting & After Production: Chapter III points

(UK - Meat Industry Guide 2006)

I omitted the links to save space but can add if anyone that interested.

Hope this has not added to any confusion.

Rgds / Charles.C

[Jarve]

Penard,

to get to below 8C in 90minutes is a guideline for the UK as described in the HMSO Chilled and Frozen guidelines, from DEFRA.

[Penard]

Thanks Jarve for your reply,

Is it linked to the weight of your product or not? It seems to me very difficult for example to require this gap for big products like hams or chili con carne.
In France, we just have to demonstrate that we respect our BBD with our good manufacturing practices and Haccp study; for instance if we need 24 hours to decrease the temperature below 4°C, our inspectors agree if our microbiological analysis are ok.

Interested in learning more about it!

Regards,

Emmanuel.

[Penard]

Hello Zeeshan,

I've checked french regulatory affairs, unfortunately we have no delay concerning the decrease of the temperature. Beef : you have to decrease the temperature of carcasses as soon as inspectors have checked them - then they only require to be below 7°C for carcasses before loading, 3°c for variety meat (liver, heart...).

Of course you have to be very careful concerning the temperature of your cold room (no freezing!), you must decrease it regularly and not strongly - same requirements for beef, chicken, pigs... It's up to you to set your temperature in order to be ok!

Concerning some high quality of beef meat named 'label rouge', you have to be above 10°C about 10 hours after slaughtering (about pH 6), then 7°C max after 36 hours in the tenderloin.


Here are information about french regulatory affairs,

Hope it will help you,

Regards,

Emmanuel.

[cazyncymru]

Working in the frozen meat sector, I would say a "cold room" is typically <5C but >0C and is where people are working or sometimes frozen meat is thawing or "tempering" ready for chopping/mincing.

A "cold store" typically operates at temperatures between -4C to +4C and is where finished products are held ready for despatch.

We are one of the biggest users of Nitrogen for freezing in the UK however we do blast freeze some products and the target is to achive <5C in 4 hours.

However cook/chill operations mean that after cooking we reduce the temperature to <8C within 90 minutes, these products are then either sent through the nitrogen tunnel or blast chilled as described above.

Hope this helps.

you ever worked with IQF technology Jarve? i suppose its used more in the frozen veg industry.....but it uses the blast of cold air (-20C) to freeze the food particles "individually" like in frozen peas, so that they don't clump together.

i've used it in packing cheese either chilled ( blasted with air at 0C) or frozen, then weighted using a Yomato weighting system before beeing packed in 2kg bags (flushed with nitrogen)

[Lucysmith]

Sometimes they are used interchangebly and sometimes they have different meaning, and the temperature to be used depends upon the material to be stored