Pork Industry Heightens Sanitation Efforts
Dehairing and scalding in the pork industry just got easier. USDA recently approved a hog scalding agent which goes into to effect Dec. 22.
The scalding agent features potassium hydroxide, said to be quickly solubilized when mixed with water and making the agent easier and faster to mix and apply.
The potassium hydroxide-based scalding agent may not make as much of an impact on the pork industry as Monfort's recent chemical dehairing technology has on the beef industry, but it shows the two industries are on the same wavelength.
Both have intensified efforts to upgrade technology and sanitation at the processing level for the purpose of providing safe food.
At the hog dehairing and scalding level, there is an increased emphasis on precision and control of operations, says David Meisinger, director of meat science for the National Pork Producers Council.
"There's a heightened awareness for cleanliness and sanitation," he points out. "It used to be: What you could see is what you were worried about; now it's what you can't see is what you're worried about."
Dehairing is a critical control point process that plant employees must ensure functions appropriately, Meisinger says. Calibration and adjustment of equipment is crucial.
Hair-removing paddles on dehairing machines must be functioning in sequence and at the proper speed.
"You want to try and get as much hair off as possible without slowing [the process] or damaging the carcass," Meisinger notes.
A supplier says that preservation of equipment is key.
"In relation to our dehairing equipment, plant [personnel] need to maintain it so it functions like it is supposed to," the supplier stresses, adding the importance of daily sanitation. "Complete cleaning of the machine is a must."
Time, temperature is critical
Scalding is another critical control point, perhaps the most important in the dehairing and cleaning process, Meisinger says. The scalding of hogs functions on a time-temperature basis.
"The process is proven," the supplier says. "Every plant does it a little bit different. Temperature has to be maintained properly through a very narrow range."
That range is about 2 degrees F to 3 degrees F on either side of about 141 degrees F. Any temperature more or less brings the operation below par.
Time is a crucial element. Carcasses cannot be left in a scalding tank too long or fat on the carcasses will begin to melt.
Plant personnel must also keep tabs on carcasses running through the scalding tank.
The colder carcasses draw heat from the water. Obviously, the more carcasses going through a scalding tank, the more heat coming out of the water.
Sanitation is also crucial to the scalding operation. In order to ensure sound operations, the scalding tank at Princeton, Mo.-based Premium Standard Farms is drained and cleaned on a nightly basis. Hogs are pre-washed before entering the scalding tank.
Scalding has taken on somewhat of a different look overseas. Some European companies, and reportedly a few U.S.companies, have implemented vertical hot-spray scalding.
"It's possibly one of the new innovations that will require some R&D to refine it for the high speed lines in the United States," the supplier says. "Line speeds are much slower in Europe."
Collette Schultz Kaster, director of technical services for Premium Standard Farms, said the company evaluated the technology but decided against it because it didn't coincide with the company's faster line speeds.
A better way?
One industry expert questions the complete process of dehairing and scalding.
"I know this sounds like heresy, but why are we doing all of this dehairing and scalding?" says Temple Grandin, industry consultant and professor of animal science at Colorado State University.
"There is all of this expensive equipment to scald and dehair hogs. And there are wastewater treatment problems associated with it."
Grandin suggests that hogs' hides be pulled. She admits there's not a huge market for the leather, but the hides could be ground into collagen. And expensive equipment costs could be avoided.
"I have never seen anyone figure out what it costs to dehair hogs," Grandin says. "What does it cost in hot water energy? What does it cost in buying and depreciating equipment?
"I am not saying that we absolutely ought to get rid of [the process]," she points out. "I am saying we should reevaluate it. Let us cost-evaluate all of the costs.