Ready to eat - SAFELY

摘要

Fully cooked meat and poultry products are increasingly being embraced by home cooks seeking out convenient meal options during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, health and wellness is top-of-mind, and includes consumers wanting assurance that food is safe for consumption. Meat and poultry processors have many technologies to ensure that product is free from pathogens. Many rely on a hurdle approach, where multiple preservation methods, including physical, chemical and biological, are applied to the product. This involves managing attributes such as pH, temperature and water activity to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms from the product. This is particularly critical with ready-to-eat (RTE) proteins, such as cold cuts, deli/luncheon meats and charcuterie. These are perishable foods that are not heated before consumption. Even heat-and-eat fully cooked meats pose a risk, as the consumer may not heat the product enough to kill dangerous microorganisms.