Many different ingredients and raw materials are processed to make chilled foods. At harvest or slaughter these materials may have a wide range of microbes in or on them. Some of them carry the micro-organisms that cause their eventual spoilage(e.g. bacilli or Lactic acid bacteria) whilst others pick them up during harvesting or processing

All food products are susceptible to deterioration in their quality during storage. Chilled foods in particular are highly perishable and the time during which the quality is maintained at a consumer acceptable standard can be termed the shelf-

As the chilled foods market has expanded and become more competitive, so have the demands for diversity, quality and longer shelf-life. Meeting these demands in a responsible, safe and cost-effective manner requires the application of an understanding of the factors that affect product safety and quality. Many problems can be avoided by applying this knowledge to a formalised HACCP approach to identify critical control points relating to quality

The detection and enumeration of microorganisms either in foods or on food contact surfaces forms an integral part of any quality control or quality assurance plan. Microbiological tests done on foods can be divided into two types:(a) quantitative or enumerative, in which a group of microorganisms in the sample are counted and the result is expressed as the number of the organisms present

Chilled foods represent a large and rapidly developing market with an extremely wide range of food types. Traditionally these were simple meat, poultry, fish and dairy products but recent trends have moved towards a greater variety and more complex products (Stringer and Dennis 2000). As more innovative products are produced, the variety of ingredients have also increased. Many of these ingredients are sourced around the world and relatively little may be known about their

During recent years there has been a greatly increased consumer demand for perishable chilled foods which are perceived as being fresh, healthy and convenient. The major food retailers have satisfied this consumer demand by providing an ever increasing range of value-added chilled food products. The wide diversity of chilled foods available is accompanied by a huge range of packaging materials and formats which are used to present attractively packaged foods in retail chill cabinets. This chapter overviews the requirements and types of packaging materials and formats which are commonly utilised for a broad

The practice of measuring and keeping records of temperatures is not new to the food industry, and has been undertaken by certain sectors, e.g. canning, for many years. However, its widespread application in the refrigerated food sector, other han fitting temperature measurement equipment to chill stores, is relatively recent. The prime factor focusing attention on temperature monitoring was the concern about food poisoning and the introduction of new legislation covering

Chilled foods are foods which are cooled to a temperature above their freezing point and which need to be maintained at that temperature to preserve quality Generally such foods will lose value if frozen, and in many cases freezing will destroy them. From the refrigeration viewpoint, the range of foods regarded as chilled is very wide. In this chapter they are taken to include fresh fruits and vegetables, both temperate and tropical in origin, the whole range of meat, fish

Much poultry and red meat is sold in a chilled unprocessed state. However, an ncreasing proportion is used as a basic raw material for chilled meat products and ready meals. A growing trend is the development of added-value convenience meals, especially ethnic products, many of which are pre-or part-cooked and necessitate chilled storage. Many of these products contain meat as a key ingredient. This meat for further processing can be supplie

As the first food of infant mammals, milk provides an important source of fat, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals, essential to the development of tissue and bone, and the growth of young. Milk is also a substance used beneficially by humans of all ages, both as a food in its own right and as a material for the production of milk products and milk-based food ingredients