Cold chain conditions of meat and dairy products in Mexican retail food stores
Year: 2018
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Domestic and international markets show growing concern on food safety and shelf life of perishable animal products that can be affected by cold chain storage conditions in retail food stores. Official Mexican Norms (OMN) determine the official values applied to these animal food products under those conditions. The purpose of this study was to compare cold chain conditions of meat and dairy products among five retail food stores established in a local municipality of Mexico of four national chain-store groups. Temperature conditions of food product surface under cooling for storage of 360 perishable products were measured, and cleanliness related to retail food stores was also monitored by on-site inspection. OMN standards were used as reference in the statistical analysis. Low amount of replications prevented the statistical analysis for cleanliness in retail food stores. Temperature conditions in cooling storage for retail food stores varied (p≤0.05) related to OMN standard. Frequency of surface temperature readings above 4°C of meat products was 2.7%; whilst in milk products 13.3% were above the 6°C. Cold chain on-site related to refrigeration equipment was not monitored due to work regulations of the retail food stores. It was concluded that for some retail food stores there was a need for improvement in keeping cold chain within the standards set by the OMN, specifically for dairy products.
DOI: 10.5680/lhpfsc000001
Authors: Ema Maldonado, JL Zaragoza-Ramírez, PA Martínez-Hernández, CC González-Ariceaga, JL García-Méndez
Institution: Chapingo Autonomous University
Language: English
Subfield: Food Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W2904472989