Appendices A&B Research
The Foundation issued a mini request for proposals to fill the data gaps in response to the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s revised Appendices A and B, issued in June 2017.
The revised Appendices A and B provide safe harbor guidelines for ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry processors. Appendix A was designed to help meat and poultry processors meet lethality requirements in RTE products and Appendix B was designed to assist processors meet the cooling and stabilization requirements for heat-treated and RTE and non-RTE products. The revised Appendices highlighted immediate research needs prior to FSIS enforcement on March 22, 2019.
This mini RFP was conducted on an expedited review and research timeline to ensure findings are available to the industry prior to the enforcement date. In July, the Foundation Board of Directors approved three research projects to address these priorities:
Effects of Product Moisture and Process Humidity on Pathogen Lethality during Continuous Cooking of Meat and Poultry Products
Michigan State University
The overall goal of the project is to provide supporting scientific evidence to document compliance with Appendix A, particularly with respect to the impact of process humidity on Salmonella lethality in high-temperature, short-time cooking processes. Research will be conducted using beef patties; restructured chicken patties; breaded, chicken nuggets; whole-muscle chicken breasts; and whole-muscle steak strips.
Development and Validation of Dynamic Predictive Models for Growth and Toxin Formation by Staphylococcus aureus in Low Temperature Cooked Products
University of Georgia
The overall project goal is to develop and validate predictive models for growth and toxin formation of Staphylococcus aureus in uncured roast beef, bacon and hams.
Validating growth models for Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium botulinum, and Bacillus cereus during cooling of uncured meat and poultry products
University of Wisconsin
This project will develop data to determine the validity of the revised Option 2 cooling guidelines for uncured meat products, specifically to determine if Phase 1 cooling (from 120 to 80°F) can be extended from the currently outlined 1 hour limit. An uncured turkey breast meat will be used in the model.
Signifying the importance of this research, these projects are jointly funded among several organizations. The Foundation is grateful for the support of the Beef Checkoff, Beef Industry Food Safety Council and the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association.
The article and others are available in the October 2018 Foundation Focus Newsletter