The ongoing focus on food safety has forced food manufacturers to re-evaluate every aspect of their operation, from the raw materials that enter their facilities to the packaged products leaving them. The cooking and chilling process has not gone overlooked in the search for pathogen-free products, and some of the latest developments in cooking process are making great strides toward that goal.
Though recent reductions of capital spending industry-wide have slowed the growth of in-package pasteurization systems, the technology is continuing to become part of the mainstream. In the process, products are partially cooked or smoked to provide the necessary smoke color and make the product firm enough to handle. Then, they are taken from the dry-heat system, packaged and put through a hot-water pasteurization and cold-water chill system. The benefits to the system are significant, in that it eliminates the handling of product once it has been cooked, and therefore eliminates the risk of post-cook contamination.