MEAT+POULTRY - March 2015 - 82

PA C K A G I N G S O L U T I O N S

Hot on the trail
Monitoring packaged meat and poultry product
temperatures throughout the supply chain
increasingly important
BY B RYA N SA LVAG E | B SA LVAG E@ S OSL A N D.CO M

I
"Because a
lot of meat
and poultry
are shipped
in pressure
mode, it only
makes sense
that time-andtemperature
technologies
would be
particularly
critical."
- John Wadie,
3M Food Safety

82

t's unclear how prevalent the use of
time-temperature indicator technology
featured in packaging is being used by the
US meat and poultry industry. However, some
packaging insiders are quick to point out that
as the US food industry continues to increase
its use of controls over the entire supply chain,
it's likely more packers and processors are
investigating its use.
"GFSI [the Global Food Safety Initiative,
an initiative providing guidance on foodsafety management-system controls necessary
to assure the safety of the food-supply chain]
is enacting more controls across the supply
chain so anyone in the business of shipping
foodstuffs is required to ensure their goods
are in control from point-to-point," says John
Wadie, US Marketing Development Manager
with 3M Food Safety, St. Paul, Minn. "Because
a lot of meat and poultry are shipped in
pressure mode, it only makes sense that
time-and-temperature technologies would be
particularly critical."
Deli meats being shipped to retailers who
want to ensure the products are temperaturecontrolled for their customers - the consumer
- is one product category that has potential for
using this technology, he adds.
Beyond helping to prevent unnecessary
and unsafe food spoilage, this technology also

MEAT+ POULTRY | 03.15 | www.meatpoultry.com

serves a very useful business purpose in that
it helps reinforce proper responsibility for
food while it is relayed from one supply-chain
partner to another, Wadie says. "'Chain of
custody' has become a buzzword we hear more
and more," he adds.  "Companies want to know
and prove that while they had food within their
chain of custody, nothing wrong happened in
terms of time-and-temperature management.
For this reason, it seems industry is more
interested in time-and-temperature technology
that offers more detailed data logging rather
than just indicating single-event transgressions.
Companies want to know when the technology
was activated for time-and-temperature
breaches and see a reading for how long it was
under improper conditions as it went through
the continuum of transfers."
Packaging expert Huston Keith, Principal
with Keymark Associates, Marietta, Ga., recalls
when time-temperature technology debuted in
the US about 30 years ago. "When it first hit, the
excitement died pretty quickly as it proved too
costly for individual package application," he
says. "[One major poultry processor] told me
it applied this technology randomly on cartons
throughout their trucks. A recent cursory search
indicates that their cost is still high."
Keith, however, feels adopting such
technology could still be worth it.
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