HACCP – Hygiene challenges and solutions
As an ever increasing range of convenience foods enters the market, correct practices of hygiene (environmental and personal cleanliness) and sanitation (disinfection and pest control) in modern meat processing plants and butcheries are becoming progressively more important.
Hygiene of meat products must start before reaching the processing stage, as it is of utmost importance for the processing quality of the meat. A lack of hygiene during slaughter, meat cutting, and meat by-product and additive handling and transportation could contribute to loss of quality and deterioration of the final processed meat products.
Poor hygiene and sanitation in meat plants and butcheries result in unattractive and tasteless products, spoilt food, and/or food-borne diseases. While government provides the compulsory national framework for food hygiene programmes through laws and regulations, and monitors the implementation of such laws, it is the primary responsibility of individual food enterprises to develop and apply efficient meat hygiene plans specifically tailored to their production range.
It is therefore crucial to take the extra time and effort to affect the principles of meat processing hygiene and regulatory practices, including GHP (Good Hygiene Practices) and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) scheme.
Meat processing hygiene is part of Quality Management (QM) of meat plants and refers to the hygienic measures to be taken during the various meat processing steps.
GHP has to be exercised at all times by management as well as staff, and refers to meat and meat products, equipment, premises and personnel. GHP schemes are not factory specific; they apply to all types of meat plants.
GHP for meat processing plants refers primarily to:
• Functional plant layout and sanitary design of equipment;
• Superior, hygienic raw materials;
• Processing methods permitting safe handling of food;
• Adequate waste measures, sanitation (cleaning and disinfection), and pest control;
• Compliance with potable water criteria;
• Purposeful cold chain;
• Regular examination of health and personal hygiene of staff;
• Regular staff training on hygiene requirements.
In order to facilitate the application of hygiene requirements, the following hygiene differentiations are made:
1. Personal;
2. Slaughter and meat processing;
3. Slaughter and meat processing premises;
4. Slaughter and meat processing equipment.
Negligence in any of the four areas may result in hazards, which can cause financial losses for a company and affect consumers’ health.
The principles of personal hygiene –
1. Wear clean protective clothes;
2. Wash hands before starting work;
3. Constantly wash hands during work;
4. Do not wear finger rings, watches or bracelets;
5. Gain access to production areas with working clothes only;
6. If there was contact with highly contaminated subjects or abnormal animal parts likely to contain pathogens, clean or disinfect hands, tools and/or clothes;
7. Cover fresh wounds through, for example, knife cuts with a water-tight bandage (Workers with purulent wounds are not allowed to work with meat because of the risk of spreading bacteria);
8. Observe strict toilet hygiene, i.e. remove apron, wash and disinfect hands and keep toilets clean;
9. Periodically have staff medical examinations conducted.
The basic hygiene of meat processing
1. Carry out meat cutting or de-boning in climatised rooms (approximately 10°C) with low air humidity. Meat should be brought in gradually and not accumulate on work tables.
2. Do not hose down floor and wall areas or equipment next to meat processing operations or final products with a power hose, as there is the risk of contamination by aerosol or droplets.
3. Discard meat pieces which accidentally have contact with the floor or other contaminated surfaces;
4. Do not place containers for meat, fat, or semi or fully-processed meat products directly on the floor, but place them on sterile stands, pallets etc.
Hygiene of meat processing premises
1. Make available adequate rooms for personnel with sections for changing clothes and boots and for personal hygiene.
2. Wall windows must be positioned at a sufficient height from floors – at least 2 m above floor level – in order to allow intense washing and disinfection of floors and walls. Window frames should be of non-corrosive material such as aluminium or similar and must not be painted.
3. Walls in all rooms where meat and by-products are handled must have smooth and easily washable surfaces up to a minimum height of 2 m. Floors in these sections must be fat resistant and water impermeable, and reasonably smooth for good cleaning, but anti-slip for worker safety.
4. Rooms for meat processing should have sufficient ventilation. Air conditioning is only required in meat cutting/deboning rooms (10°C to 12°C).
5. In order to facilitate proper cleaning, the junction between floor and walls must be rounded (not rectangular).
6. All wet rooms must have floor drains covered by non-corrosive metal plates or grills. The covers should be easily removable for proper cleaning of the drains.
7. Waste water must be channelled away from hand-wash facilities, cool room evaporators, tool sterilisers, etc. by means of water pipes or similar directly into effluent drains.
8. Electrical wiring and pipes for hot and cold water as well as for compressed air should be out of reach of possible dirt contamination and not hamper cleaning exercises. Insulations for hot water pipes must have smooth, washable surfaces.
9. Ventilation openings must be insect and bird proof.
Hygiene of meat processing equipment
1. Designs must allow easy and intense cleaning.
2. Equipment manufacturers follow directives as to proper design and construction of meat processing equipment, and meat industries should issue these to workers to enable them to perform all operations according to GHP.
3. It is commonly accepted in modern meat industries that tools and surfaces in contact with meat should be made of food-grade stainless steel or synthetic materials. Stainless steel must be used for working tables, meat hooks (at least their parts in contact with meat), and blades of knives, saws, cleavers and axes. All the stainless steel parts must be smooth, easily accessible for cleaning and without hidden spaces where particles of meat may collect.
4. Galvanized steel and food-grade aluminium are useful materials in the meat industries as they are non-corrosive. Those materials should however not be in direct contact with meat, as they are not sufficiently smooth, or may release unwanted substances. However, they are highly suitable materials for overhead rails and supporting structures, working platforms, and frames for tables and machinery.
Disinfection
Cleaning removes many micro-organisms (90% and more) present on objects, however, many micro-organisms cling especially firmly to almost invisible layers of organic materials, so-called biofilms, and will not be entirely removed even by deep cleaning, but persist in proliferating. To destroy these types of micro-organisms, antimicrobial treatments – achieved through hot water or steam, or through the application of disinfectants – are required.
When cleaning and disinfection or sanitation measures commence, all food products must be removed from the area to be cleaned. Physical cleaning with pressurised water may stir up dirt or produce contaminated water droplets (aerosol), which could taint meat, and chemical cleaning, disinfection and pest control may produce toxic residues when in contact with meat or meat products.
The type and product lines or activity of each individual meat plant determine where and at which time disinfection intervals should be applied.
The first step in floor and equipment cleaning is “dry cleaning” – the physical removal of coarse solid particles with a dry brush, broom or shovel. Using large amounts of water to remove this type of material would be wasteful and eventually cause drains to clog and waste water treatment facilities to become weighed down.
Several daily disinfections by hot water or chemicals are necessary for hand tools, meat saws and cutting boards. Disinfection once a day is recommended for other equipment (large machinery) and dismantled equipment such as parts of grinders, fillers and stuffers; and floors and walls of processing rooms.
Chilling rooms should be disinfected once a week.
There are a number of reputable companies in South Africa that supply equipment, cleaning materials and expertise. these include PHT, Industro Clean, Glenchem, Bidvest Steiner, Empact Group – Supercare, Entecom, Goscor, Prime Cleaning Supplies, Pescatech and Lindol Hygiene to name but a few.
