000248 STERIS Expands Program to Irradiate Meat Products

Mentor, OH - With pasteurized raw meat and meat byproducts becoming available to the public, STERIS Corporation, the world leader in infection and contamination prevention, announced an expansion of its capability to ensure consumer safety and enjoyment of the newly introduced food products.

STERIS's Food Safety Division has developed a sensory evaluation program, SenseEval, and a dosimetry testing program, DoseSet, that allow food processors to optimize irradiation parameters to provide safe, high quality products to consumers. These two programs are based on STERIS's experience of providing food irradiation testing for over a decade and the pasteurization of tens of thousands of pounds of meats and other foods. The programs provide food processors wishing to investigate the potential use of irradiation for their food products a scientifically sound, professionally administered service to verify the resulting sensory quality of individual products being treated by electron, gamma, or x-ray pasteurization.

Commenting on the SenseEval and DoseSet programs, Bill R. Sanford, STERIS's Chairman, President, and CEO, stated, “The official introduction of these programs corresponds to the recent approval and commercial availability of raw meat and meat byproducts pasteurized by irradiation, and the pending approval of irradiation pasteurization of Ready-to-Eat (RTE) meat.” Mr. Sanford continued, “Consumers will not only want a product that is rendered safe through the use of irradiation pasteurization, but they also want it to be indistinguishable in color, flavor, appearance, and overall quality from non-pasteurized products. For irradiation pasteurization to be commercially successful, the industry must meet or exceed these consumer expectations. Through these programs, STERIS provides the support in designing process control parameters which will achieve this objective.”

The SenseEval program does much more than evaluate the sensory properties (i.e., taste, color, smell) of food products and will work in concurrence with the DoseSet program. Mr. Sanford further explained, “The SenseEval program begins with a facility audit to determine the effectiveness of upstream bioburden control technologies utilized by our Customers. Upstream control of bioburden is critical in the delivery of a consistent product to the irradiator with the least amount of bioburden. If the bioburden control technologies are not in place, or if they need to be enhanced, STERIS will implement an integrated systems solution to controlling bioburden both pre- and post- pasteurization utilizing our full line of products and services including GMP produced cleaners and sanitizers, microbiological testing, process validation, clean room technology, and facility design consultation.”

Dr. James L. Marsden, Regent's Distinguished Professor of Meat Science at Kansas State University and Senior Science Advisor to the North American Meat Processors Association stated, “The meat industry recognizes that hygienic processing practices in slaughter and processing are prerequisites for irradiation pasteurization. Research has shown that by applying state-of-the- art sanitation practices, bioburden can be minimized, allowing for the pasteurization of meat and poultry products using very low levels of irradiation. This approach is scientifically sound and will result in safe and wholesome consumer products.”

After compiling the information from the audit, the DoseSet program will define an acceptable irradiation dose based on the microbial assessment for specific products and production processes; define the process parameters to be used in feasibility trials taking into consideration packaging materials, application temperature, and the irradiation modality; treat the product using these defined parameters; and perform gross product quality evaluation to determine whether the irradiation parameters are in proximity of being acceptable.

Dr. Randall Phebus, Vice President of Technology at STERIS FoodLabs stated, “Scientific evaluation and verification of the acceptability of the irradiated product under the parameters defined through DoseSet have to be looked at not only immediately after testing, but throughout the products' expected shelf life. Our program will incorporate the analysis of products stored under highly controlled retail display conditions, and also assist in determining what the stated shelf life should be. In the final phase of the SenseEval program, a series of difference testing with an experienced panel followed by acceptance testing with a consumer panel will be performed. At the request of the Customer a thorough descriptive profile evaluation by a trained panel will be conducted to further identify specific sensory attributes of the irradiated products.”

Mr. Sanford concluded, “One more important aspect that can't be overlooked is determining the irradiation pasteurization goals and expectations of food processors concerning their entire product lines. This will lead to the development of a strategy to choose the most appropriate, cost effective technologies to address specific needs. This is an important aspect of the program as there are certain limitations to the electron beam modality, such as product thickness, that will facilitate the need to utilize gamma or x-ray, each of which has better penetration capabilities. The range of geometries of the products to be irradiated will play a major role in the choice, or choices of modalities.”

The SenseEval and DoseSet programs are further examples of the wide range of innovative food safety systems, products, services, and technologies being provided by STERIS's Food Safety Division. The broad capabilities enable STERIS to meet the needs of food safety Customers in a technology neutral, process neutral, and location neutral manner by developing solutions that are best matched to the specific requirements of Customers from farm to table.

STERIS Corporation is a leading provider of infection prevention, contamination prevention, microbial reduction, and therapy support systems, products, services, and technologies to health care, scientific, research, food, and industrial Customers throughout the world. The Company has over 4,500 Associates (employees) worldwide, including more than 1,700 direct sales, service, and field support personnel. Customer Support facilities are located in major global market centers with production operations in the United States, Canada, Germany, Finland, Sweden, and Australia.

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