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Safety Zone By James Marsden
James Marsden is Kansas State University Regent’s Distinguished Prof. of Food Safety.

Sous vide and pasteurized meat and poultry

(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)

Sous vide (meaning “under vacuum” in French) is a process in which foods are cooked in a vacuum package at low temperatures for extended periods of time.  During the process, temperatures are very accurately controlled. This results in a highly uniform cooking process. It’s a method of cooking employed by many of the world’s great chefs.

The sous vide process has applications for pasteurizing meat and poultry products. The accurate process controls allow for thermal processes that can be validated for control of Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogens.

When meat products are prepared using the sous vide method, they can be quickly seared and served at the exact desired degree of doneness. The eating quality of steaks, chicken and other items is noticeably improved.

The father of modern sous vide is Dr. Bruno Goussault. In a recent interview with Prepared Foods, he described himself as “a scientist at the service of chefs, who are true artists. While I am not a chef, I stand next to world-class chefs to help them to understand what is actually happening within a product while it is being cooked and to explain to them how to obtain the optimal results they seek.”

Last year, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Goussault and observe him teaching the sous vide method to students at the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, Colo. He demonstrated improvements in the eating quality of foods prepared using sous vide that were truly remarkable.

Sous vide is used in great restaurants around the world, but it can also be used in meat and poultry processing plants. It requires systems for water cooking under highly controlled conditions. Products are slowly cooked at low temperatures and the time and temperatures associated with the process are closely monitored. The process is validated for control of Salmonella and other pathogens.

There is an important food safety issue that must be addressed when using sous vide in a commercial process. The pasteurization achieved with sous vide fully inactivates vegetative pathogens. It does not kill spore forming bacteria. For this reason it’s essential that products produced by this method be held under refrigerated storage at all times up until the time they are re-cooked. If there’s a loss of refrigerated temperature control, there’s a risk of outgrowth of spores and the production of heat stable toxins. This risk must be fully controlled by documenting refrigeration conditions throughout the distribution process.  

I believe there’s great potential for pasteurizing raw meat and poultry products using sous vide. Imagine products for restaurants and consumers with improved tenderness, flavor and juiciness that are free from the risks of foodborne disease. It’s a goal that’s worth pursuing.

3/14/2016

 
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