Gas in packaging

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Gas in packaging

Postby David Taylor » Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:17 am

On atechnical side of things I would like to know if anyone who has experience in the industry side of things if they have ever heard of special gases being used in the fresh sausage packaging process?

I need help and advice on this as we are spending a small fortune on the gases because of the scare of botulism!

We produce fresh sausages that we mark with a 10 day shelf life, we go through all the processes to eliminate risk but we are unsure of the gases if they are absoultely necessary after hearing that botulism doesnt become dangerous until after 10 days!

Any help on this is much appreciated!
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Postby dorsets21 » Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:19 pm

first of all how did you work out the 10 day shelf life did you get it tested?
you must have somthing in it . On the botulism side of things it don,t need air to breed i would say that all the gas does is keep the meat from changing color, steps should be taken from the time you get your meat to the time it leaves with all steps having checks ie, temp,cleaning and so on
:)as cold and good house cleaning is your defence
ask the question? where does my food come from
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Postby onewheeler » Mon Apr 23, 2012 5:11 pm

Nitrogen is often used with supermarket meat to reduce discolouration. It won't affect the growth of botulinism bugs.

A quick google found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_atmosphere

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Postby wheels » Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:41 pm

I assume you are adding some form of Sodium disulphite, Sodium metabisulphite or similar to your sausage?

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Postby David Taylor » Sat Apr 28, 2012 3:32 pm

Thanks guys for your replies! The mix of gas we use is oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide! We do use sodium metabolasulphite as a preserve! We did a shelf life test and received a result of 18 days but we were told to drop the shelf life to 10 days as botulism starts to grow after 10 days! This is very confusing as we have 10 days now on our packaging but we are still using the gas which costs 1000 pounds per month! Any experts that I have spoken to have all laughed at me when told that we use gas and have a 10 day shelf life!
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Postby wheels » Sat Apr 28, 2012 3:46 pm

Obviously Sweden isn't the UK - if you get what I mean - but (without checking) I'm sure that our supermarkets sell sausage with a 7 day life just wrapped normally (with metabisulphate or similar).

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Postby Oddwookiee » Sun Apr 29, 2012 3:00 pm

I'm in the US, and from all I've talked to federal & state inspectors, as well as vendors of the gas injectors at meat processor conventions, the gas has zero effect on anaerobic bacterial growth. Botulism grows quite happily in a zero-oxygen environment. The large packing pants here will often use a atmosphere-replacement injection in packaged meats to keep the meat's color from changing, but as far as bacteria goes, I've never heard of that making a difference.

Also, no offense to you, but on a strict physics level, how would the gas composition inside the package have any effect on the sausage's bacterial load, other then just on the surface? The big fear with all sausages isn't things on the surface, it's having a contaminate inside the mix, dispersed through the blend. That's the reason we use chemical preservatives. The package atmosphere will keep the color from changing, but (in my opinion) that's all.

I think someone is pulling the wool over your eyes there. I've been making and selling over a dozen types of fresh pork sausage for 20 plus years, and I never use any kind of preservative other then straight NaCl, and I have consistently hit a refrigerated shelf life of 14 days. I rotate pork sausage from my fresh case to my freezer case at 7 days to give my customer more at-home shelf life, but I can leave it fresh a full 14 days and it still be perfectly fine.. It sounds like whoever is doing your gas injecting is making a nice bit of change on your back quite needlessly.

As for botulism not growing for 10 days, I don't want to call whoever told you that a blatant liar, but that is extremely dangerous advice. Botulism will begin growing from 6 hours to 10 days after contamination, depending on temperature, acidity & moisture level, just to name the broad conditions.
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Postby bwalt822 » Tue May 01, 2012 5:52 pm

David Taylor wrote: The mix of gas we use is oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide!


What % are each of these gases...
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Postby mitchamus » Wed May 02, 2012 5:52 am

David Taylor wrote: The mix of gas we use is oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide!


Ummm Air??? :shock:
Australia - Where the Beef sausage is King.
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Postby grisell » Wed May 02, 2012 9:22 am

These are the figures I've found for modified atmosphere when packaging:

Fresh whole beef: vacuum
Fresh cut up or ground beef: 20% CO2, 80% O2
Fresh pork: 90% CO2, 10% N2
Smoked ham and sausages: 35% CO2, 65% N2
Cooked sausages: 20% CO2, 80% N2
Cooked ham: 40% CO2, 80% N2 (I know this adds up to 120%, it must be a misprint in the book)

The functions of the three gases are:

N2, nitrogen: Inert gas that excludes oxygen
CO2, carbon dioxide: Inhibits bacterial and mould growth
O2, oxygen: Normally only used with ground beef to stabilize the red color.

Ref: Matlagning, Akademiförlaget AB, 1991, ISBN 91-24-16406-2

As far as I know, changing the atmosphere has little impact on botulinum growth, since C botulinum is anaerobic. Means for preventing botulism are the usual: salt, nitrite, low pH, perfect hygiene, low temperature, low water activity etc etc.
André

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