Food product cooling after cooking

 Hello

 I am working in a catering company where we roast  meat  and poultry in the evening for next day service.As normal procedure we are keeping in the oven at 190 degree for 4- 5 hrs .Then keep it in room temperature until it get cooled properly  and later transferred to chiller. The next again reheat it before service. Recently  studies i read that it is better to keep in Chiller  after transfer to another container within 30 minutes.It will help to avoid exposure to danger zone temperature.Also now adays chillers have holding capacity to hold heat.Please share your opinion. 

Regards

Sawmya

In a previous company where we made soups and sauces, we used a blast chiller immediately after filling and before boxing. Product was held in the blast chiller until it had reached chilled temperature (5C - an arbitrary value) and would then be boxed and moved to chilled storage for distribution. It's a fairly standard approach in the UK.

In a previous company where we made soups and sauces, we used a blast chiller immediately after filling and before boxing. Product was held in the blast chiller until it had reached chilled temperature (5C - an arbitrary value) and would then be boxed and moved to chilled storage for distribution. It's a fairly standard approach in the UK.

I agree Jim and would use blast cooling for any perishable cooked foods that are going to held chilled.

Kind regards,

Tony

Hi

Thanks for the reply

 We don't have blast chiller in our locations.

I would like to know which is the preferred method

Either keep cooling in room temp for 2 hrs and then chilled it or after cooking transfer to another container in 30 minutes and straight  chilling.

Awaiting reply

Regards

Sawmya

Hi Sawmya,

The conservative reply is to purchase a blast chiller then follow posts 2 and 3.

And possibly hire a FS specialist.

PS - at least 3 factors are important from a FS POV -

(1) the microbiological quality of raw material

(2) The temperature profile vs time during roasting at the slowest heating point in yr products.

(3) The temperature profile vs time after removal from oven at the slowest cooling point in yr products up to establisment of the equilibrium chiller temperature.

I can probably elaborate (3) further if you are interested.

Hi Sawmya,

Your current cook-chill method sounds like a recipe for food-borne illness.

You should definitely cool your meat faster than your current method.  Food Standards Australia New Zealand describes some easy-to-follow rules to help you understand how quickly food should be cooled to prevent dangerous bacteria from growing in the food:  

Food Standards Australia New Zealand: "The temperature should fall from 60°C to 21°C in less than two hours and be reduced to 5°C or colder in the next four hours. It is difficult to cool food within these times unless you put food into shallow containers." [or a blast chiller]

Although these are Australian rules the guidance is useful for anyone.  The aim of the cooling is for the food to be in the temperature 'danger zone' for a time period that is too short for bacteria to multiply to dangerous levels.  Test the temperature of the meat while it is cooling by putting a clean, sanitisied probe thermometer into the thickest part of each piece of meat; hold it in place until the temperature read-out stabilises.  Pieces with bone will cool down differently than non-bone pieces and red meat will cool differently to poultry.

You can find the complete temperature guidance here, it's worth a look: http://www.foodstand...trolma1477.aspx

Good luck!

Food Standards Australia New Zealand: "The temperature should fall from 60°C to 21°C in less than two hours and be reduced to 5°C or colder in the next four hours. It is difficult to cool food within these times unless you put food into shallow containers." (or a blast chiller)

Hi - Although the Food Standards Regulations in Australia specify the temperatures in the post above meeting this standard is quite onerous for meat products with large diameter. (Cooling rate is quite important for spore forming organisms and would usually be considered a CCP) The Meat Standards in Australian give more guidance for meat business in the "Australian standard for the hygienic production and transportation of meat and meat products for human consumption FRSC Technical Report No. 3 AS 4696:2007". (search for AS4696 - it is freely available) with recommendations of cooling rates for Nitrite containing and non-nitrite containing products.

Cheers

I think blast chilling would be the best option to ensure that the product temperature decreases rapidly if its not going to be consumed right away.

In our organization if the blast is down, we store the food product in a walk in freezer covered and adequately segregated ofc  and record temperatures every 30 mins. Once the temperature is at 4.4 C or below, we then place into the holding chiller. If I remember correctly the World Food Safety Guidelines for Airline Catering states a reduction from 60 C to 21 C in 2 hours and from 21 C to 4.4 C in a further 4 hours, 6 hours in total. If you dont have a blast and you have a freezer that you can use in the interim, be mindful to check your temperatures regularly to ensure that the cooling is happening within a time frame similar to what I just mentioned. This may work for you.

Hi - Although the Food Standards Regulations in Australia specify the temperatures in the post above meeting this standard is quite onerous for meat products with large diameter. (Cooling rate is quite important for spore forming organisms and would usually be considered a CCP) The Meat Standards in Australian give more guidance for meat business in the "Australian standard for the hygienic production and transportation of meat and meat products for human consumption FRSC Technical Report No. 3 AS 4696:2007". (search for AS4696 - it is freely available) with recommendations of cooling rates for Nitrite containing and non-nitrite containing products.

 

 

Cheers

Hi Derf,

Thks for yr input.

From a very quick look, I assume clauses 13.16 and 13.17 are relevant –

times for cooling meat.pdf   76.63KB   45 downloads

Offhand, the times mentioned look overly generous from a micro POV. I could not see any mention defining size (?) Some micro. validation would seem appropriate.