As I get older, and hopefully wiser, I've made a concerted effort to reduce my intake of certain foods, increase intake of others, and increase my exercise. I decided on walking because it is something I am good at. I had this epiphany recently, when I was down in South America looking at a potential individually quick-frozen (IQF) vegetable supplier, and I realized much of my 30-year career has been spent walking. We walk the fields, product reception, pre-wash, manipulation, blanching, chilling, freezing, packaging areas, and finished-goods freezer. Nothing like a good walk through a process to give you a general idea of what is going on, if you know what to look for. That’s the tough part—what do you look for? In this article, I will walk you through what I look for and why it means something to me.
I started my career in the beef industry at the ranch level. Horseback, truck, and tractor were the standard modes of transportation around the ranch, and not too much walking. I guess you could consider fixing fence a task that required walking, which was a significant amount of the work we did. Although we didn’t walk much, I learned something important from Harold Porterfield (may he rest in peace), ranch owner and my boss/mentor. As we would ride through the herd, he would stop and look at each pair (cow/calf). Being in my early 20s, I would become impatient because I had something more important (I thought at the time) to do like hit the local watering hole. One day, I asked why we had to go through that every time we rode through the herd; I thought we were looking for obvious issues like prolapses, pinkeye, and assorted injuries. He said, “It’s the little things that matter, because the little things add up to big things, and the big things are what will cause you to fail in this business.”
So that is why I walk. I walk and I look for the little things. Walking the fields and then onto the production floor provides you with the sights, smells, sounds, and feel of the process. I thrive on that. I need that interaction to give me an understanding of whom I am dealing with and what we are really going to buy from them. As the old adage states: “Nobody sends you a bad sample.” If you can’t go to the supplier for budgetary reasons, find somebody you trust to get in there and walk that field and factory.
Now, I think if you’ve made it this far into the article, you are preparing to take notes in regard to all these “little things” I am going to drop on you…but that is not the case. Only one big thing matters most in the IQF vegetable world. It is very common in the food industry and is applicable across the food ingredient categories. The one big thing is: cleaning. Yes, that’s it! Well, it comprises a multitude of little things that will be covered further into the discussion.
Here is a basic rundown of how cleaning affects the overall process and product:
1. Cleaning the fields throughout the growing season and prior to harvest prevents foreign material (FM) and microbiological waste from contaminating the harvested product.
2. Washing the product prior to entering the factory removes pesticide residue, microbiological organisms, yeast/mold, and FM.
3. Cleaning the dicer/slicer/chopping equipment throughout the shift reduces the increase in microbial load during the shift (heat generation) and allows operators to either check the blades to identify wear to prevent FM contamination or identify damaged blades and place product on hold back to the last good check.
4. Effective sanitation practices and inspection for wear of equipment in zones 1 and 2 after the blancher and/or lethality step can prevent post-process microbial and FM contamination.
5. Proper freezer coil, conveyor framework, and paneling sanitation inside the freezer prevents microbial harborage and product contamination. Inspection of conveyor belts during the cleaning process can detect abnormal wear and prevent FM contamination.
6. Validated cleaning of equipment, floors, and forklift/pallet jacks in the packaging area prevents microbial harborage from contaminating finished product.
7. Proper cleaning/inspection of finished-product freezer storage reduces the potential for pallet debris, compromised packaging, and structural failure, which can lead to FM and microbial contamination.
If you need additional detailed information on the steps within an IQF vegetable process, keep reading and you’ll find it. The further you delve into the type of process, the greater your understanding of how simple yet crucial each process is to the whole operation. The “little things” are the intricacies involved in each stage of the IQF vegetable process, and how validated cleaning procedures work to prevent the big three risk factors: microbiological, chemical, and physical. To frame this discussion, I’ve broken down the process into seven main sectors:
1. Field Practices
2. Sorting/Screening
3. Washing
4. Product Manipulation
5. Lethality Step
6. Freezing
7. Packaging
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