Jump to content


Welcome to the eGullet Forums!

These forums are a service of the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to advancement of the culinary arts. Anyone can read the forums, however if you would like to participate in active discussions please join the Society.

Photo

Bone fragments in processed meat


  • Please log in to reply
5 replies to this topic

#1 Cookwithlove

Cookwithlove
  • participating member
  • 175 posts

Posted 23 June 2012 - 10:17 PM

Dear all,

I work as a chef in a production kitchen preparing snack filling for retail outlets. Most of these filling using cooked chicken meat imported from Thailand. Estimated usage 400 to 600 kg of cooked chicken meat. They are de-bone, portion into bite size, cooked and freeze before imported to us.Before they are packed in Thailand, this chicken go throught the x-ray to detect any bone fragrant, plastic or hair. I do not know their de-boning and cleaning process. Before our cooking process begin, we open the cooked chicken(2 kg) a pkt, place into a warmer, check physically with our bare hand to ensure no bone fragrant before we begin the cooking process. We do not have a detector machine here. From time to time, we still find brittle/soft/fragment bones that escaped the detection machine there. Something we missed and it end up in the filling and we get complaint from customers who makes a big fuss. We have implemented many measures to resolve this problem without success. I am looking at all directions to address the root cause of this problem and Iook forward to your input, suggestion and advice.


My grateful and sincere thanks and appreciation.


cookwithlove
主泡一杯邀西方. 馥郁幽香而湧.三焦回转沁心房
"Inhale the aroma before tasting and drinking, savour the goodness from the heart "

#2 gfweb

gfweb
  • participating member
  • 2,431 posts

Posted 24 June 2012 - 06:42 AM

Dear all,

I work as a chef in a production kitchen preparing snack filling for retail outlets. Most of these filling using cooked chicken meat imported from Thailand. Estimated usage 400 to 600 kg of cooked chicken meat. They are de-bone, portion into bite size, cooked and freeze before imported to us.Before they are packed in Thailand, this chicken go throught the x-ray to detect any bone fragrant, plastic or hair. I do not know their de-boning and cleaning process. Before our cooking process begin, we open the cooked chicken(2 kg) a pkt, place into a warmer, check physically with our bare hand to ensure no bone fragrant before we begin the cooking process. We do not have a detector machine here. From time to time, we still find brittle/soft/fragment bones that escaped the detection machine there. Something we missed and it end up in the filling and we get complaint from customers who makes a big fuss. We have implemented many measures to resolve this problem without success. I am looking at all directions to address the root cause of this problem and Iook forward to your input, suggestion and advice.


My grateful and sincere thanks and appreciation.


cookwithlove


I think that the easiest approach is to go to your supplier and tell them that they aren't supplying you with bone-free product and see what happens. Or get a new supplier, maybe.

#3 Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook
  • participating member
  • 3,220 posts

Posted 24 June 2012 - 07:10 AM

I think that the easiest approach is to go to your supplier and tell them that they aren't supplying you with bone-free product and see what happens. Or get a new supplier, maybe.

Yep. In a production facility working on that scale with product not processed in-house, I'd say those are the only realistic solutions.
It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

#4 liuzhou

liuzhou
  • participating member
  • 1,123 posts

Posted 24 June 2012 - 08:48 AM

I don't think X-Rays can really detect plastic or hair. Perhaps bone. But I'm no expert.

But I'd love to know why you are cooking pre-cooked chicken in the first place.
...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

#5 Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook
  • participating member
  • 3,220 posts

Posted 24 June 2012 - 09:35 AM

I don't think X-Rays can really detect plastic or hair. Perhaps bone. But I'm no expert.

But I'd love to know why you are cooking pre-cooked chicken in the first place.

It was stated that the chicken is used as a filling, maybe the final product requires some form of cooking after being filled that has nothing to do with whether or not the chicken is precooked.
It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

#6 gfweb

gfweb
  • participating member
  • 2,431 posts

Posted 24 June 2012 - 11:02 AM

I don't think X-Rays can really detect plastic or hair. Perhaps bone. But I'm no expert.

But I'd love to know why you are cooking pre-cooked chicken in the first place.


Was wondering about that myself. I suppose that a low energy xray plus an image analysis program could detect differences. Maybe.