Many chemical bactericidal washes and rinses have been tried in the poultry processing industry with varying results; Campylobacter and Salmonella still find their way to finished product. To make matters more challenging for these processors, the European market will not accept poultry meat that has been subjected to chlorine rinses. In fact, chlorine has been banned in the European poultry industry since the 1990s due to the widespread concern that it is carcinogenic. Whether the chlorine issue is scientific fact or merely political in nature, it is still a concern for producers that can’t export chlorine-treated poultry products to Europe.
But now, poultry processors have a new method to overcome this problem—CMS Technology’s PoultrypHresh treatment, which has been granted Letters of No Objection by the FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service). The treatment is effective in reducing bacterial counts while decreasing the amount of chlorine used in the process and/or eliminating the need for chlorine, depending on the intervention point. PoultrypHresh uses a combination of chemicals including copper, a micronutrient that has antimicrobial properties. FE interviewed John Meccia, CMS Technology’s CEO to get more information on how this process works.