33.1 Introduction to contamination analysis in the food
industry
During the past decade, large changes have taken place in food processing,
particularly the development of more and more ready-to-eat foods for con-
sumers. The amount of refrigerated processed foods of extended durability
(REPFED) also continues to increase. A number of different mechanical pro-
duction stages are needed during the preparation of these foods, which makes
these foods sensitive to contamination. The logistics are very important in order
to get the products to consumers as individual packs. Therefore, packaging of
REPFED products has been the target for intensive research, and in order to
establish long shelf-lives, vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)
have been employed. Another important approach to increasing the shelf-life of
products is cold storage and the maintenance of the cold chain at every
production stage.
There is a trend among consumers to desire foods as mildly processed as
possible and produced without any preservatives and food additives. This has led
to minimal processing that reduces factors inhibitory to bacterial growth during
preparation and storage. Heat treatment is associated with preparation of many
REPFED products. The heat treatment does not, however, inactivate spores that
can later cause safety or spoilage problems. On the other hand, heat treatment
inactivates vegetative bacteria present in the raw materials, subsequently making
products sensitive to post-cooking contamination and bacterial growth. Many
factors associated with modern food processing increase food safety risks.
33
Contamination routes and analysis in
food processing environments
J. Lunde¬n, J. Bjo»rkroth and H. Korkeala, University of Helsinki,
Finland