| heal.abstract |
The most difficult to control segment that affects directly safety and quality of chilled meats is the actual chill chain. Application of an optimised management for chilled distribution requires continuous monitoring and control of storage conditions from production to consumption. A novel chill chain management policy, coded ""Safety Monitoring and Assurance System"" (SMAS) is applied, allowing to give priority to products in such a way that, compared to the First In First Out (FIFO) current approach, risk at consumption time is minimized and quality optimised. The principles of the SMAS management approach of chilled products are developed and implemented, in order to prove the benefits of this system against the traditional FIFO. The two alternative policies (FIFO and SMAS) were compared for their effect on the quality of the products in terms of remaining shelf life, as well as for the impact on the microbiological risk at the time of consumption. The simulation results showed that, applying SMAS approach leads to significant decrease of the risk of listeriosis of ground pork products, lowering, at the same time, the number of spoiled products at the time of consumption. © ISHS 2005. |
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