Institution of Prosecution against the Act of Transporting In a Vehicle a Bulk Consignment of Poultry Meat Unfit for Human Consumption – General Interest
Abstract
Storage temperature plays a major role in causing changes in quality and safety of poultry meat. Product should retain its desired sensory, chemical, physical, functional and microbiological characteristics. Authorized Officers are expected to guide and inspect on food safety and security measures of the country. After conducting comprehensive food outlet inspections covering the whole Medical Officer Health (MOH) area and legal prosecutions over violation of law related to food safety, inspections of food transporting vehicles were conducted. Twenty vehicles were inspected and 7 out of them were released after giving strict advice, 3 were detained to produce before courts. By entering a plea of guilty, first two defendants were admitting their guilt and fined 67 USD each. Last case was charged against the chicken company transporting chicken at temperature of +50 Centigrade (standard -180 Centigrade), where company lawyer admitted a plea of guilt, but pleaded to release all chicken worth of 2700 USD. Usually in Sri Lankan context, temperature of container was measuring by thermometers as a spot reading of whole passage of cold chain of frozen foods. Upon the expert opinion and scientific explaining by the MOH of the impact of releasing this bulk of chicken on the health of the general public, the Magistrate made decision against the company with strict advice to maintain all vehicles in good sanitary condition, fined 67 USD and ordered to destroy the entire bulk quantity of chicken worth 2000 USD under the supervision of the MOH. This would set future reference/ benchmark in field of food safety in Sri Lanka to supervise and examine of temperature record by Authorized officers using smart phones on data lodgers, which records should be maintained by all frozen food companies thorough out their cold chain, and it can be used as weighted and firm evidence for their legal submissions in future as a complete reflection of cold chain.
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Introduction
Shelf-life is considered as “the time period within which food is safe to consume and/or has an acceptable quality to consumers”[6]. Upon storage and distribution for a certain period, foods are exposed to a wide range of environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, oxygen and light[11]. Storage temperature plays a major role in causing changes in quality and safety of chicken during storage. Since most degradation reactions are “arrhenius” type reactions, higher temperatures are known to speed the rate of degradation.
A typical frozen product will spend part of its shelf life in a bulk cold store, a refrigerated vehicle or container, a distribution store, a retail display cabinet or institutional frozen food storage cabinet, a period out of refrigeration during the journey from the retail outlet to home and time in a home freezer[12]. Due to these fluctuations in temperature, the food product may become microbiologically unsafe before or very close to the end of their sensory quality shelf life if temperature-abused[10].
During shelf life, the product should retain its desired sensory, chemical, physical, functional and microbiological characteristics, as well as accurately comply with any nutritional information printed on the label. Periodic determination of shelf life helps to provide assurance that the product remains consistent over time with respect to quality [7]. Many frozen meat products probably have a shelf life over two years if product quality, processing and packaging (PPP) factors are well managed [12]. P. Zeuthen, et al., demonstrated the estimated shelf life by different temperatures for various frozen foods [10]. At 20 centigrade, chicken can be consumed after 1000 days, but if it was at 10 centigrade, it needed to be consumed before 200 days [10]. So, with declining of stored temperature maximum shelf life varies inverse proportionately.
Conclusion
Chemical, physical and microbiological changes are the leading reaction mechanism of food deterioration [11]. Lipid oxidation may produce changes in meat quality parameters such as color, flavour, odour, texture, and even nutritional value[1]. Microbial contamination can cause public health hazards and economic loss in terms of food poisoning and meat spoilage. Lack of proper temperature maintenance at any stage definitely leads to growth of microbes and lipid oxidation of chicken. A formal discussion with the Approved Additional Government Analyst in Sri Lanka revealed that any chemical analysis for chicken had never been carried out by them, and if done any microbial analysis sometimes would give “no growth report” in similar type of situations mentioned above.
Regulatory provisions related to above-mentioned food safety violations are defined under the Gazette Notification No. 1724/26 dated 26.01.12 titled Food (Hygiene) Regulations – 2011[2] published under the Food Act No. 26 of 1980.
References
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