Holiday demand, cooling deviations and the snowball effect

As families finish their Christmas shopping this week, one item on their list is likely something for their table. In previous years, before the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these families may have gone to their local supermarket to find the holiday ham, turkey, or roast that would become the center of their Christmas traditions. This year, with small businesses being among those hardest hit by the financial repercussions of the pandemic, consumers have given new life to the ‘shop local’ movement. 

"Christmas hams display - Woolworths QV" by avlxyz is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Rather than picking up their celebration’s main course at the nearest chain grocery store, consumers are choosing to support their neighborhood businesses. With demand in an upswing, many of our smaller clients are asking: How do we safely produce all this product before the holidays?

Following these tips will help processors avoid cooling deviations — and better deal with those that occur — during the high-volume period before the holidays. Consumer trends have changed — the pandemic has brought many shoppers to the local, small processor’s doors for the first time. Supplying them with a safe and delicious Christmas dinner could keep them coming back well after the pandemic is over.

One significant issue we see leading up to the holidays most years is an inability to keep product cold. While trying to fulfill the additional demand, businesses may feel pressured to overload their refrigerated storage areas. Unfortunately, cramming all that product in the coolers and freezers limits air flow in those spaces and raises the overall temperature. When this occurs, “Fully Cooked Not Shelf Stable” and “Heat Treated Not Fully Cooked Not Shelf Stable” product is unable to cool per the FSIS Appendix B Stabilization Guideline parameters, resulting in a cooling deviation.

Cooling deviations not only represent a potential food-safety hazard, they also typically snowball into further hardships for the processor. Deviated product likely will be placed on hold pending pathogen modeling, test results or other forms of analysis. This can last multiple days, during which the product cannot be further processed or sold. This slows inventory turnover rates and may force changes to the processing schedule, since cooler space is occupied by product that was originally intended to be sold/shipped. Once the snowball begins rolling down the hill, it becomes difficult for the processor to meet its processing goals.

Thankfully there are a few tricks that businesses can employ to keep their product cold and still take advantage of the uptick in holiday demand! First, as mentioned previously, load coolers and freezers only with the appropriate amount of product. Keep product well-spaced so that cold air can move throughout the refrigerated area easily. If refrigerated storage space is a limited resource within a facility, management may decide to utilize offsite refrigeration, such as refrigerated trucks or other close by processing facilities.

Second, anticipate that cooling deviations may increase during this season and take preventive measures to help to resolve deviations quickly. Whenever I am faced with analyzing a cooling deviation, I cross my fingers that there is an abundance of data. Automated temperature probes are a great way to collect large quantities of data, and I suggest that processors use them to monitor both the internal temperature of the product and the temperature of the refrigerated space. All this data helps processors be more confident that their decision to either test, recook, throw away, sell, etc., is the right one.

"Christmas Ham" by nforcr is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Finally, processors can mitigate losses by segregating deviated product from non-deviated product immediately. By separating these batches, the facility can continue to fabricate, package and sell product that is safe for human consumption, and keep only possibly unsafe product on hold. This keeps the processing schedule on track so that there is minimal time loss caused by the deviation.

— Molly Linden, Food Safety Consultant, molly@werfoodsafety.com