Time and Temperature Controls

During the manufacture of processed meat products, considerable attention should be placed on the relationship between time and temperature. This relationship is of concern not only during thermal processing, but should also be taken into account during all stages of manufacture, including heating, holding, and cooling. Any number of time and temperature combinations exist during the processing of meat products that affect the quality of the finished food. These quality criteria include the microbiological safety and shelflife of the product as well as the organoleptic parameters of texture, flavor, and juiciness. Control and optimization of time and temperature is influenced by many factors including, but not limited to, raw material selection, nonmeat ingredients, processing equipment, and packaging technology. In discussing the topic of time and temperature control, it is notable to comment on the efforts of the canned food industry. For many years, this food industry segment has employed mathematics and heat transfer technology to develop and optimize processes necessary to achieve desired finished product quality attributes (Ball and Olson, 1957). These efforts have led to the understanding of thermal death curves of selected pathogenic microorganisms. The fate of these microorganisms is largely dependent upon the combined time and temperature of the heating and cooling process. However, several fundamental differences exist between the processing of canned foods versus most processed meat products. In general, canning affords the processor identical product geometry combined with retort conditions. These standard conditions facilitate the development and optimization of a time/temperature process usually designed to achieve commercial sterility. Processed meat products often do not possess or maintain identical geometry. In addition, they may be exposed to several different time and temperature combinations through the manufacturing process, none of which are likely to reach