Source: Lisa M . Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 4/3/14

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a scientific opinion that indicates meat could be safely transported, within specific time limitations, at a temperature higher than the currently mandated core temperature of 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 degrees F).

The panel also recommended that existing mandates be rewritten to focus on surface temperatures, where bacteria is more likely to grow, than on the core temperature of the products.

Responding to a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards issued a scientific opinion that touched on combinations of time and temperature that would allow easier transportation of meat products without a higher risk of the growth of pathogens. For its research, the EFSA panel focused on salmonella, a strain of E. coli, listeria and Y. enterocolitica.

Existing regulations dating to 2004, the report noted, requires that a target core temperature of 7 degrees C be achieved before transport and remain at that temperature during transport. However, they do not address how quickly that core temperature must be achieved, which “introduces the possibility that carcasses could be held at temperatures that support the growth of pathogens … while still complying with the legislation,” the opinion said.
Using computer models, the panel demonstrated that “[t]ransportation [of meat products] could occur before a carcass target temperature was reached in the slaughterhouse chillers as long as the temperature continued to decrease towards that target during transportation.

“[It is] not essential that the chilling occurred in the slaughter plant as bacterial growth was related to the chilling along the continuum from slaughter to catering/domestic refrigeration.”

The scientific document includes different combinations of carcass surface target temperatures with specific transport time and temperature conditions that meat processors and distributors could use, that would limit pathogen growth to a level no greater than what is achieved under existing regulations.

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