RESEARCH NEWS

Ready-to-Eat: Imaging System Monitors Oven Loading in Fully Cooked Meat Operations to Ensure Quality

Fully cooked, ready-to-eat products continue to increase in popularity among consumers because of their convenience. However, cooking these products requires careful control to ensure that the product is not overcooked or undercooked. While overcooking can cause quality deterioration, undercooking can create an unsafe product.

At typical production rates of 6,000 pounds per hour, the losses from overcooking can have a significant financial impact on producers. To minimize both undercooking and overcooking, Stewart and his colleagues at GTRI built a system that measures the three-dimensional shape and surface temperature of every piece of meat before it enters the oven.

Functional Testing of Silver Nanoparticles on Food Processing Surfaces

Food processing faces numerous challenges with controlling different strains of bacteria on the plethora of plant surfaces. Foodborne pathogens account for 76 million illnesses annually in the United States. Of those, 325,000 result in hospitalization and 5,000 result in death.

Recently, a group of researchers within the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) teamed with colleagues at the University of Georgia (UGA) and an industrial partner that has developed a nanoparticle deposition technology to conduct efficacy testing of sliver nanoparticles on food processing surfaces. The primary goals of this ongoing research study are to evaluate the functionality of depositing inorganic antimicrobial/antifungal nanocoatings (IANs) on various food processing surfaces (conducted by GTRI researchers) as well as determine the antibacterial efficacy of the IANs (conducted by UGA researchers).

What Is the Best Way to Lift?

In 1977, Duke Dubos asked the question: What is the best way to lift and carry? He identified the key elements needed to create an industry standard for safe lifting techniques. These elements formed the basis of what is known as the NIOSH lifting equation², the standardized method for determining what the safe maximum weight is for an individual to lift. In a similar manner, the methods for addressing how to avoid lower back injuries have also become quite standardized. However, we are still trying to answer Dubos’ original question today. There are typically two ergonomic approaches to answering the question: (1) engineering or (2) administrative controls.

Modeling the Chicken

The design of most devices for handling poultry requires a “feel” for the size and shape of the product. Most modern poultry processing equipment is designed to adjust the equipment to compensate for variability in the size and shape of birds. However, no single design is able to handle the entire product population accurately, which directly results in yield loss or equipment malfunction based on the application. A better understanding of this variability could better support equipment design efforts.

The Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Food Processing Technology Division recently acquired a traditional technology known as the FARO Arm but for a non-traditional application. The FARO Arm is a device that allows for reverse engineering of manufactured product by rapidly verifying or scanning parts with high accuracy.

Electric Fork Lifts for Indoor and Outdoor Use

By Gary Floyd

Electric forklifts represent roughly 55 percent to 60 percent of all lift truck sales in the United States and are used in almost every industry to transfer cargo, stock, and pallets. Whether in retail, manufacturing, or warehousing, these simple-to-operate vehicles are quiet, clean, and efficient. But not only are they environmentally and ergonomically friendly, they also can save thousands of dollars annually per vehicle. Why?

Researcher Profile: Ai-Ping Hu

SAFETY RESEARCH

Researchers Validate Optical Biosensor’s Detection Capability on Live Birds Experimentally Infected with the Avian Influenza Virus

Last fall, PoultryTech reported on the potential of using an optical biosensor developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) for the detection of the avian influenza (AI) virus, commonly known as bird flu (PoultryTech, Vol. 20, No. 3, Fall 2008). Recently, GTRI researchers teamed with colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory to validate the sensor’s detection capabilities with experimentally infected live chickens.

Study Underway to Examine Which Poultry Processing Tasks May Contribute to Lower Back Injury

Researchers with the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Agricultural Technology Research Program in conjunction with member companies of the Georgia Poultry Federation have been examining which tasks within a poultry processing plant could relate to lower back pain and injuries.

The Applicability of Using the NIOSH Lifting Equation in a Poultry Processing Plant

The revised National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) lifting equation was released in January 1994. The purpose of the lifting equation was to provide ergonomists a uniform method for evaluating manual lifting tasks in the hope of reducing lower back injuries and stimulate research.

Integrating Food Safety Technologies Directly into Processing Equipment

Excerpted from “Designing food safety into processing equipment,” Poultry Times, August 31, 2009, pp. 4, 10. Reprinted with permission.

At Georgia Tech, we are focused on the development of not only new sensor technology for product screening tasks, but also the design and functionality of processing equipment that integrates food safety technologies directly into the equipment. This is done with the ultimate goal of improving overall product safety and quality and decreasing total cost for food processing plants.

Still Waiting on the SIP

In late January of 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, (USDA, FSIS) published a Federal Register (FR) Notice wherein they formally provided details relating to the Salmonella Initiative Program (SIP). Thirty days later, as the public comment period for this FR Notice was closing, the FSIS announced their intention to issue another such Notice to address aspects of the SIP that had prompted a multitude of questions and reopen the comment period. Almost two years later, the poultry industries are still awaiting publication of the next SIP FR Notice.

New Safety Issues Kit Now Available from the Poultry & Egg Institute

The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association’s Poultry & Egg Institute has released a Poultry Industry Workplace Safety Issues Kit highlighting the progress and the successes achieved by the industry in workplace safety. Since 1994, the poultry industry’s injury and illness incident rate (cases per 10,000 full-time workers) has declined by 73%.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH

Georgia's Industrial Storm Water Permit: Is Your Plant in Compliance?

This past June marked the third anniversary of the reissued State of Georgia (GAR000000) general permit for storm water discharges from industrial activities. As expected, during these three years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved Georgia's 2006 305(b)/303(d) List of Waters (impaired stream segments). With two years remaining until the general permit is set to expire, analysis of the data collected by facilities regarding the impact of animal processing activities on impaired streams is expected to begin. For the poultry industry, these milestones are a reminder to review existing storm water pollution prevention plans (SWP3) to ensure that monitoring requirements are up-to-date and that best management practices (BMPs) are working.

Researchers Examine Current Chiller Water Disinfection Management Practices

The chilling process is one of several key steps used in poultry processing to ensure the safety and quality of products. In this step, eviscerated and defeathered carcasses are dropped into an immersion chiller, which rapidly chills the carcasses to 40 ºF or below and inhibits microbial growth. To further ensure food safety, processors add chlorine or other chemicals to disinfect and sanitize the chiller water.

A Closer Look at Water/Energy Conservation in Food Processing Operations

Want to get eyes to roll or emotions flowing? Mention conservation, especially water and/or energy conservation. Why? Because many people who have traveled down the conservation path feel it was not worth the trip. Common complaints are that saving water should reduce wastewater and water monthly costs, yet typically savings are minimal or nonexistent due to subsequent rate adjustments needed to offset the utility's reduced revenue. Additionally, when drought conditions occur, the call for reduced water usage often does not exempt facilities already conserving resources.

Greenhouse Gas Regulation and the Poultry Industry

For months now the development of a federal regulatory program aimed at reducing the emission of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere has been the topic of much debate. In spite of data that indicates the earth has been in a cooling cycle since 2001, proponents of this program claim this is an essential step in fending off the possibility of long-term global warming.

Adding Value: Researchers Turn Poultry Processing Byproducts into Fuel

Researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are developing cost-effective techniques for separating and converting poultry processing residuals into higher-value products such as high-grade fuels. The techniques would provide a beneficial use for these byproducts, which are typically blended back into lower-value products.

New Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Opportunities Just the Right Fit for Food and Beverage Processors

An emerging confluence of legislation, funding, and technical progress regarding alternative energy conversion and energy efficiency is resulting in new opportunities for industrial energy systems implementations. This includes cost-effective strategies for implementing combined heat and power (CHP) in mid-sized food processing facilities. Strategically, these opportunities seek to foster "greener" practices within, and perceptions about, the food and beverage industry.

CHP Basics

Combined heat and power (CHP), also known as cogeneration, is the simultaneous production of electricity and heat from a single fuel source, such as natural gas, biomass, biogas, coal, waste heat, or oil. CHP is not a single technology, but an integrated energy system that can be modified depending upon the needs of the energy end user. CHP provides on-site generation of electrical and/or mechanical power; waste-heat recovery for heating, cooling, dehumidification, or process applications; and seamless system integration for a variety of technologies, thermal applications, and fuel types into existing building infrastructure.

Georgia Tech's New Food Processing Technology Building

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