Breaking the cold generates losses

There are many reasons why the refrigeration process and excessive care in the cold chain are vital points in the poultry industry.

From obtaining a product of the highest quality, to the economic results in all the productive dynamics and the sector in each country, are elements that are affected, either negatively or positively, because of good or bad refrigeration.

Making mistakes in the process of maintaining the cold chain in this sensitive market is more common than you might think.

Only so far have entrepreneurs begun to realize the importance of this factor of the production system for the economy of their companies. Therefore, they have begun to implement methods of evaluation of their processes and quality control, with the aim of reducing the risk of making mistakes during refrigeration or breaking the cold chain.

In this edition, ACR LATINOAMÉRICA wanted to talk with the Colombian consultant and specialist in poultry production, Florentino Torres Meneses, to tell our readers what are the mistakes that are most frequently made in this industry and how they could be avoided.

Follow the instructions
According to the expert, there are several ways to cool or freeze the bird, in smaller companies they use ice and other companies make use of the recirculated water system. There is also cooling in Chiller that consists of immersing the bird in ice water, from 0 to 2 degrees Celsius for spaces of 60 to 70 minutes.

You can talk about a refrigerated product when the cold level goes from 0 to 4 degrees Celsius and frozen when the bird is at a level of -18 degrees Celsius.

Breaking the cold chain of the poultry product is very easy, a human error can cause substantial losses to a company, just by making a temperature rise that comes in gradual decline is already making an irreparable mistake.

"From the moment the bird is slaughtered, an adequate cooling process must begin. It is essential that the product is not left out of cold rooms at any time; the loading must be in air-conditioned areas and the time spent by the product there must be as little as possible; during cooling the product should not undergo variations greater than 2 degrees Celsius; the transport must be refrigerated with the health and temperature conditions indicated; the delivery must be very fast and place it in refrigerators or refrigerators that meet the appropriate temperature recommendations for refrigerated product, these are from 0 to 4 degrees Celsius and for frozen it is -18 degrees C, "said Torres.

The most frequent errors
As stated by the consultant, this process is very vulnerable to the commission of human errors. "Not being strict with the recommended temperatures is a bad practice that is committed especially at the sales stage," says Florentino.

This could be due to the little knowledge that the final sellers have of the conditions that must be followed in these cases. Specialists in the sector say that training in this regard is urgent, especially since it is the sellers who are responsible for contact with the final consumer.

One of the mistakes that is made in the plant, for example, is to misuse the equipment, because if any is designed for freezing you should not put fresh or refrigerated products there, and the same happens when a piece of equipment is designed for refrigerated products, it should not be used to store frozen product.

This is a process in which the temperature must drop systematically and comply with very specific protocols. "This is very common in the industry and generates large product losses, quality deterioration and increased yields or losses due to thawing," said the specialist.

The poultry industry is very varied, you will find all kinds of equipment, refrigerants and different evaporation temperatures are used. Reciprocating compressors are used in Freon and Ammonia and screw compressors in Freon and Ammonia. "One of the particularities of this business is that there are no plants with preconceived designs of their cooling infrastructure, on the contrary, as it grows, the equipment is coupled and the systems are implemented according to the needs of evolution," explained Florentino Torres.

Automating is winning
Some entrepreneurs of the poultry guild have not perceived the importance of automating their processes, a fundamental aspect in the improvement of results both in terms of efficiency and quality, and consequently, in economic terms.

When a company has low levels of automation, it incurs greater use of labor and has less access to process control, which has a direct impact on the quality of the final product.

"Not automating contributes negatively to losing the traceability of the product because those systems that are not monitored much less have operating logs that would be very useful to observe specific cases of problems that happened long ago, and in turn, would allow the correct solution of the error or prevent it from being committed again," explained the specialist in detail, who also indicated that "in this industry many entrepreneurs consider that managing the quality of their service has to do only with responding to the client and solving the inconveniences without analyzing where exactly they occurred and why, without knowing for sure what happened. It shouldn't be like this."

Finally, Florentino Torres called on entrepreneurs in the poultry sector to be aware of the importance for this market to carry out a good refrigeration of the product. "Refrigeration is a necessary and very important process in the poultry production chain. Current cooling systems can be redesigned and future growths contemplated so as not to make grafts, but models of well-programmed systems. I have participated in a couple of redesigns of cooling systems in plants and they do not come out as expensive as it is believed and instead, significant savings are generated in energy and infrastructure. It's worth it. Also to entrepreneurs who have the opportunity to design their systems from the beginning I recommend that they look for serious, well-constituted companies with experience in the field".

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Consequences of poor refrigeration

Millard browning, consists of a grayish tone that the chicken acquires due to the oxidation of lipids by temperature variations.

If the cooling temperature is not adequate, the durability of the product decreases proportionally, as well as the proliferation of microorganisms such as lysteria that cause serious human diseases.

The breaking of the cold chain also generates protein denaturation that causes the food quality of the product to decrease due to the loss of the moisture of the chicken, which contains nutrients such as protein.

In addition to the above, poor refrigeration and making mistakes in the cold chain means a decrease in production, which represents a very negative economic impact on the industry. This is something that so far entrepreneurs are analyzing.

It should be remembered that refrigeration not only influences the visual appearance and duration of chicken meat, but also its tenderness and performance by weight.