Experimental results and modeling of poultry carcass cooling by water immersion

Cooling is one of most common thermal processes used to improve the quality and safety of food products and to extend their shelf life (WANG; SUN, 2003). In industrial processing of poultry, immediately after slaughter, bleeding, hot water immersion, feather withdraw and viscera withdraw, poultry carcasses have to be chilled to reduce their temperature from approximately 40 to 4 °C, which contributes to ensure safe products. During the cooling of poultry carcasses, the highest temperature is located in the breast geometric center, which is the parameter to be checked to evaluate the cooling process efficacy (JAMES et al. 2006).