Meat
Analysis for the meat industry
The meat industry is one of the biggest markets in Europe. The government has set forth certain rules regarding food safety that you as a meat producer must fulfil. The consumer wants tasty, economical meat and a great deal of choice, which presents great challenges to you as a producer. To ensure that your meat products are safe, we perform rapid, reliable and price-technically interesting analyses on a microbiological level. Supplemented by (specific) laboratory tests with which we support you in your product development.
Meat analysis and the clean label trend in the meat industry
E-numbers have an unjust(?) bad reputation with the consumer. So producers try to avoid the use or reporting of E-numbers as much as possible. On the other hand, the demand for products that are tenable for longer is rising. Currently, alternatives are used as added preservatives such as beet juice or nitrite. These natural additives are unfortunately less constant with regard to concentration and quality than the E-additives. Thus the use-by date of your products is less well guaranteed.
Testing meat and meat products for listeria
Listeria is prevalent and keeps growing at 4 degrees. So it can be present even in cold, moist rooms in the meat processing industry. With the curbing of E-numbers and reduction of salt content, it is much harder to keep the listeria concentration under the standard. This may have consequences for the tenability of your meat products. Therefore, it is essential to have your products tested.
The listeria tenability test runs as follows:
- First we look at whether there is an initial contamination with listeria, in which concentration and with which frequency.
- Then a model is created with, for example, FSSP or Combase.
- For filling in the modelling tools you must indicate the concentration of certain ingredients (such as salt and preservatives) in your product. The GBA Group can help you using a specific laboratory test.
- Based on the product composition, we can estimate if listeria can grow past the standard within the set use-by date. Depending on the outcome, GBA Group can perform a listeria challenge test under accreditation.
Additional laboratory testing on meat products
The consumer must be able to read on the label what the nutritional value of the product is. GBA Group also undertakes analyses including carbohydrates, protein, fat, sugars, salt, fiber and the fatty acid pattern. In addition, we perform tests for MOSH MOAH, PAC and heavy metals. Meat products intended for sale to Muslims or to be exported to Muslim countries can be checked by us for the absence of pork. The same techniques are used in the detection of meat products of other animal species.
Livestock testing
We screen the blood of poultry, cows and port for certain diseases. This screening is necessary to be able to export meat to certain countries.
The analysis process for meat
By maintaining personal contact with you, we ensure an optimal analysis process. The testing process is monitored by our scientific professionals. They are your sparring partner for specific questions and if you have a contamination in your company. Before we start the process, we ask you if you wish to receive early warnings if there is a suspicion of or detection of a certain bacteria. Such as listeria. In addition, we discuss how you wish to receive the test data. Or if there are, for example, limits that should be listed on the report and if you want us to make specific reports.
Our customer service will provide you with information about your samples and the time you can expect the results.
You create the analysis packages yourself and we perform a rationalization step if desired.
- In this step, we discuss whether the composition of your analysis package can be optimized.
- We set the KPIs that we discuss with you during the evaluations.
- We report to you if there are new techniques for determining certain parameters.
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