-: Start, my name is Jayne Stratton.
And this is part of our science of safe food series
and this lecture will cover the types
of reduced oxygen packaging processes.
So everybody had a chance to look
at the vacuum packaging machines out there.
Who's using instruments like that?
I know you are, anybody else?
Do you have similar instruments, anybody else?
You guys, okay, so you're already familiar
with how these machines operate.
Is that any chance you're gonna try
to increase your scale or are you
pretty happy with what you've got now?
Man: We got one that's.
-: Oh, you've already got a pretty nice machine,
okay, well good. (laughs)
One of these times we're gonna have
to ask so we can come visit.
We'll ask the inspectors if we can
go on an inspection and see the place.
So again, I mentioned that this series of lectures,
it's set up as three different modules.
So we've already done the overview
of reduced oxygen packaging,
so now we're gonna go over the types
of processes and you can see the list up here.
We'll go over each one in a little bit more detail.
So vacuum packaging equipment.
Again, you can see there's a lot
of different sizes out there.
What we have out in our lounge area
is a single chamber vacuum sealer.
And with this one, the lid is closed,
the air is removed, and then there's
a heat seal inside the chamber
that will seal the bag
and then the chamber sealers are typically
used for low to medium volume packaging.
So, as you can see, you're setting that up,
there's gonna be a bar, and you're gonna
be setting that package over that bar
where the heat seal is gonna be taking place.
And it's evacuate that entire chamber
along with the air that's inside of that bag.
After that process is done,
you kinda hear this whoosh which is a valve
that's opening up so air is rushing back
into that chamber and it pops open,
meaning the process is done.
So there's not much to think about
when you use this type of machine.
You do have to arrange to make sure
that your settings are correct,
that you're getting the proper heat seal,
that it's not gonna open up
and then using enough vacuum for that particular products.
If you have a big product,
like a big piece of meat,
probably gonna take more time to pull that vacuum.
Rather than small little vegetable type products.
Also, there's the double vacuum chamber
used for medium volume packaging.
It's spring-weighted.
Its lids are spring-weighted or they could
be fully automated, commonly used for fresh meat,
processed meat, cheese, and candy, and chocolate.
With this particular instrument,
you can see over here, it's got a swing lid.
So the lid is on one side, pulling the vacuum,
but on this other side you can be setting up more bags.
Then when this one is done,
it flips over, pulls a vacuum on those bags,
then you can be setting up on the other side.
So essentially, it's just increasing
your speed of operation.
There's also automatic belt vacuum chambers.
You can see a small picture on the right hand side.
This would be used for more high-speed operations,
so this lid is gonna travel up and down.
So your product is gonna be loaded on that belt,
it's gonna slide in under that vacuum sealer,
it's gonna come down, pull your vacuum,
and then when it's done, pop up,
and then more items are gonna be traveling on that belt.
There's also thermoforming vacuum packaging.
And products are loaded into thermoformed pouches.
So it's just a little plastic pouch,
usually they come in rows that are fed
through the system and then you'll have
a thermoforming plastic sheet
that you can see here that's gonna be sealing
the tops of those little pouches.
So these are used for fresh meats,
sausages, cheese, candy, grain, grab and go snacks.
I watched a video on YouTube,
they were doing these little beef jerkeys
in the little pouches that you see.
They're running those all through.
So a system like this works really well
for a lot of those little small items
that are the same size.
So with vacuum packaging,
there's a few things to consider
on what type of product you're doing.
So TCS, that means Time/temperature
Control for Safety, food.
And then PA, that stands for Product Assessment Required.
So the way you look at this table,
if you are more to the left top side,
your food is safer.
Low pH, below 4.2.
Low water activity, below .88.
So up in this corner, you have barriers
to pathogens or other organisms from growing.
As you work your way down to this right hand side,
as your pH gets higher,
your water activity gets higher,
there's more chance for microorganisms
or pathogens to grow.
So there's less barriers, essentially.
So once you get down to this area,
if your food falls into these categories,
then you might need a product assessment
which means that somebody with expertise
on that particular product and process
would look at how you're doing things
and then maybe do some testing to determine
if that process and product is safe.
So this is just a simple table,
you can kinda use to help assess
the products that you're doing
your reduced oxygen packaging on.
So cook chill.
So this is a technique involves
the full cooking of food and it's followed
by rapid chilling and storage at controlled temperatures.
So this is really a nice operation
because it really gives you flexibility
in food service and you can maintain
quality, and nutritional value, flavor, and appearance.
Is anybody here doing cook chill currently?
Cook chill processes?
-: No but I was at a facility that did it.
Jayne: Oh, what'd you think?
-: I thought, referring to a jail,
it was a good idea, at that jail.
Jayne: Mm hmm.
-: At our jail it would not work.
-: Would not work as well, okay.
So it really can be tailored to the facility.
And it also depends on your equipment.
If you have really good equipment,
that you can process efficiently,
the cook chill works really, really well.
So why would you use it?
We've kinda touched on this a little bit.
Works well for refrigerated, frozen foods.
Savings in personnel, less time and labor.
You may not need trained cooks
necessary at serving locations.
Maybe you're just reheating product
because it's already been fully cooked.
Storage, inventory, easier to handle.
And then these cook chill bags, you can stack 'em,
so makes storage a little bit easier.
And reduced deliveries.
So with food safety, again,
we kinda talked about that package as being a barrier.
It's a barrier between human contact with the food.
So it leads to safer handling of that food.
Prevents spoilage organisms and pathogenic organisms
from growing, if you're doing that process properly.
So let's take a look at the process.
And we'll look at this in a little bit
more detail than the microbiological safety lecture.
And kinda see what each one of these steps
is doing to your product, microbiologically speaking.
So what you're doing is you're cooking the product.
You're pumping or pouring it into a bag,
sealing that bag, usually that's done
with a hot bar sealer,
using a blast chill or water bath
to cool it down quickly.
And then storing that product for reheating later.
So some of the equipment,
it can be anything from something
that might be on a stove top all the way
up to quite a bit more complicated equipment.
Couple things to note is when you're using bags,
you have to make sure that they can withstand
both the chilling and the heating process.
So you'd be looking at bags
that can withstand 20 to 210 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combi-ovens can be used.
These have slide-out racks, sometimes those are convenient.
'Cause they can go right into that blast chiller.
Kettles for cooking.
Kettles are nice, especially a steam-jacketed kettle.
You can control the temperature really, really well.
So you can ensure that your product
is pasteurized properly.
Tumble chillers, they use cold water
to circulate and cool down product very quickly.
Hot water baths are used for cooking.
Pumps, pumps can maintain sanitary conditions.
Again, you're avoiding that human contact
with the food, you're using a pump
to pump that product.
An all-in-one tank,
that simply means that you're using the same tank
for both process, maybe cooking in the tank
with the hot water and then replacing
that hot water with chilled water
so it's all done in one particular piece of equipment.
So on the cook chill, couple things to be aware of.
If you're cooking then chilling,
like for example, you're cooking at 158 Fahrenheit.
You wanna bring that down to that refrigerated
temperature within 90 minutes.
So you wanna quickly try to chill that product.
If you're freezing, you wanna try
to bring that cooked food down
from your cooking temperature down to freezing
no more than 240 minutes, so that's about four hours.
You wanna bring that down quickly as possible.
And this last box is the reason why.
So bacteria grows best between 41 and 146
degrees Farenheit, so this is what
they call the danger zone.
So you wanna get your product
either above that or below that
to make sure that it's safe.
So then going back to our table,
so once you've decided all of your equipment,
your processes, what food,
you always need to use this table
to determine whether your pH values
or water activities are enough
to put that into that non-TCS food category.
So sous vide, anybody using this process at all?
Has anybody ever used this, on their own?
Man: At home all the time.
-: Do you, okay, what do you think?
Do you prefer it over regular cooked products
or is it just, depends on the product?
-: You can throw a prime rib in for 24 hours,
that thing is so just tender and juicy, it's amazing.
I think it presents the meat color
a little bit differently than I would like.
-: That's a good point because we'll see
that in the next slide, yeah.
Man: But for me, I love it,
'cause I can throw it in there
and not worry about for however long I want to.
Take it out, open it up and.
-: Yeah, it's funny, we were just talking,
I was just talking about this
with Dr. Biancinni yesterday and she says, oh yeah,
we got one of those for Christmas,
they haven't used it yet because the husband
is supposed to do it. (laughs)
And she's too busy to cook, right, too busy to cook.
Man: That's fair, that's fair.
-: (laughs) We need to tell 'em
that all's you have to do is put it in there
and that's it, so okay.
With sous vide, food is placed in a plastic pouch
or a glass jar and then it's cooked
sometimes from one to seven hours.
It could even be a couple days
for some particular products
at an accurately regulated temperature.
For meat about 131 to 140 degrees Farenheit.
Could be higher for vegetables.
So you want to cook the item
evenly while retaining moisture.
So again, there's benefits to cooking this way.
You have a consistent product.
It tastes good.
So it's gonna maintain those juices
in a meat product.
There's gonna be less waste.
Flexibility, again, you can do portion control
because you're using different size bags potentially.
So this slide shows some of the important
temperatures to be aware of.
So the degree of accuracy and consistency
of that temperature's gonna vary.
So again, a small little thin steak
is gonna cook at different times
for sure than say, maybe, a thicker piece.
So a 15 millimeter thick piece of fish
will cook in 17 to 18 minutes.
And the time varies.
So you can see from 111 to 142 degrees,
that fish is pretty much gonna cook
within that temperature range.
If you're looking at maybe cooking eggs,
you might need a more constant temperature.
Because there's proteins that are gonna
denature at different temperatures.
So you might need something a little bit more consistent.
So sous vide cooking continues.
It's gonna continue until the center
of that food reaches that target temperature.
And again, as I mentioned, it's gonna depend
on your initial temperature,
the thickness and shape of the food is very important.
And the temperature of the bath.
So here's some pictures of what some meat products
look like cooked either sous vide
or in a traditional pan cooking.
So on the left hand side you can see
this one looks perfectly cooked from edge to edge,
you have consistent color throughout the product.
While over here, you can see,
you can definitely see that loss of volume.
It's shrunk down just a little bit.
And then color changes.
So those gray bands kinda shows
where maybe it's been overcooked
a little bit on the edges.
So just a show of hands,
which would you prefer, left or right?
Left?
Or right?
Or you don't care because you just
eat whatever's on your plate? (audience laughs)
So the one on the bottom,
the sous vide salmon,
so you have this one perfectly cooked
from edge to edge.
And then with this particular product,
again, you kinda see that loss of volume
and then you see the overcooking on the edges.
So there's an advantage to using
this type of process, for sure.
So with equipment, usually there's
a sous vide precision cooking device.
And that's shown in this picture,
usually it's something that can hang
on the edge of a pot.
It shows the temperature,
and it's got a little circulator
in the base of that.
It's gonna circulate the water
and heat at that same time.
So that way you can maintain a consistent temperature.
So you need the container to hold the water
and then for the bags,
you need to make sure you have the proper bags
to do the product.
So pretty simple.
So modified atmosphere packaging, question?
-: On the previous slide, you showed the glass jars.
I'm assuming you cannot use this for home canning.
-: You would not use it for home canning.
That's correct.
So with modified atmosphere packaging,
this is also called gas flushing,
so you're replacing that atmosphere
in that bag with some other type of gas.
Could be oxygen, carbon dioxide, or nitrogen.
So that gas blend, it's developed
for each type of food product.
And again, the purpose of this
is to delay oxidation or prevent organisms from growing.
It's gonna extend shelf life.
And when you use this type of packaging,
maybe you don't need as many preservatives.
And that's a goal of a lot of companies
is to try to take out preservatives.
So if you're using this type of packaging,
it's helping prevent those organisms from growing,
you might be able to quote unquote,
have a more natural product.
There's different types of films
that can be used for this type of packaging.
It's gonna have different rates of water transmission,
sealing characteristics, it's all really
based on what type of food you're working with.
So this is a different type of packaging.
So you kinda see that all of this,
what we're talking about here,
is not just the atmosphere around the food,
the packaging is really the key part of all of this.
So with the modified atmosphere packaging,
there's a number of different
types of materials you can use,
flexible films, preformed trays,
maybe thermoformed packages as well.
So these are all options that can be used for packaging.
One advantage of the thermoform packaging
is you're using less material.
So this is usually where your forming
those packages at the same time
as you're filling the food.
Number of different products use
modified atmosphere packaging
that are shown up here.
Fresh meats, cheese, processed meat,
fish, seafood, coffee might be one.
Bread products.
So the next time you're at the store
and you're looking at packaging,
usually when I go to the store,
I'm not so much interested in the food,
I'm fascinated by the packaging
that they have in there.
It's just gotten so advanced.
It's just amazing.
So different types of mixtures.
We'll see on the next slide which food products
these might be most applicable to,
but essentially, carbon dioxide,
nitrogen, and oxygen are the ones
that are primarily used in the modified
atmosphere packaging type products.
There are a couple other types of gases,
nitrous oxide, argon, hydrogen
that could be used in certain types of products as well.
So CO2, effective in inhibiting microorganisms.
It was also dissolve into the food's
liquid and fat phase.
It causes pH reduction.
So when that actually goes into a liquid phase
it's gonna lower that pH.
And that actually in and of itself
is gonna be an antimicrobial,
have an antimicrobial effect.
Nitrogen, that's used to replace the oxygen.
It's gonna help prevent oxidation
and prevent that package from collapsing.
So here's some products that sometimes use
that modified atmosphere packaging.
So red meat.
So you might be packaging that with oxygen
to maintain that red color.
Bread.
You want low oxygen to avoid mold.
And then vegetables, sometimes they might
have a three gas mixture that's unique to them.
So this slide shows some of the different oxygen,
carbon dioxide, and nitrogen mixes
that might be used for different types of products.
So I'll just point out the red meat,
again, little bit higher oxygen is used
in those types of products.
Most everything else you would want to try
to eliminate the oxygen in those packages.
And one final note on controlled
atmosphere packaging, or CAP.
So the composition of the atmosphere inside
is altered from the normal aerobic conditions.
So unlike modified atmosphere packaging,
it's not required to maintain its conditions.
In this, your conditions of the,
what's inside the package is gonna
be maintained throughout shelf life.
And one example I have here
is controlled atmosphere conditions
are sometimes simply used for storing open material.
So you might have a warehouse with a bunch
of vegetables or fruit, maybe they're controlling
that atmosphere within that storage container unit.
So, in summary, different types of processes
that fall under the reduced oxygen packaging category
is vacuum packaging, cook chill,
sous vide, and modified atmosphere packaging.
So that covers all of our processes,
do we have any questions at all on?