Designing a “Safe”
Ground Beef Patty
Ground Beef Production Food Safety
Workshop
February 2-3, 2011
U.S. Ground Beef Patty Business
• One would be hard pressed to name a food
product that’s more popular than the allAmerican hamburger. Billions of burgers are
consumed annually at a variety of foodservice
venues and in homes.
• 28.1 billion pounds of beef consumed 2007.
(@50% consumption for ground beef that
would be 14 billion pounds of ground beef)
U.S. Ground Beef Patty Business
• Making top-quality hamburgers requires top-quality
raw materials, ingredients, processing equipment,
and the desire to offer only the best.
• The bulk of the patty business has become
concentrated within the grinding segment of
companies that specialize solely in ground beef
processing and patty making,”
U.S. Ground Beef Patty Business
The thing that makes the hamburger so attractive is
there’s no limit to the creativity from any person
preparing it”. “It can hold a variety of flavors, and you
can doctor it up any way you like. We’ll continue to see
people place much emphasis on making sure they get
the highest-quality product with the longest shelf life
and best appearance for consumers. There’s always
room to revisit the process to give consumers a product
that even better meets their needs. Good old-fashioned
ground meat is still going to be the most popular
product for years to come
Retail Ground Beef Food-borne Illness
Risks
• Many of the outbreaks and recalls over the past several
years have been related to retail ground beef patties:
– Topps Meat Company recalled 21.7 million pounds of
its frozen hamburgers Sept. 2007
– United Food Group recalled 5.7 million pounds of
frozen hamburgers June 2007
– Cargill Meat Solutions recalled 845,000 pounds of
frozen hamburgers October 2007
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WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2008 - Dutch Prime Foods, Inc., a Long Branch, New Jersey firm, is recalling approximately 345
pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2008 - Vermont Livestock, Slaughter and Processing Co., LLC, a Ferrisburg, Vt., firm, is recalling
approximately 2,758 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, June 8, 2008 – Dutch’s Meat, Inc., a Trenton, N.J., firm, is recalling approximately 13,275 pounds of ground
beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7,
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2008 - Palama Holdings, LLC, a Kapolei, Hawaii, firm, is voluntarily recalling approximately 68,670
pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2008 - Rochester Meat Company, a Rochester, Minn., firm, is voluntarily recalling approximately
188,000 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2008 - Mark's Quality Meats, Inc., a Detroit, Mich., firm, is voluntarily recalling approximately 13,150
pounds of various cuts of steaks and ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2007 - Snapps Ferry Packing, an Afton, Tenn., firm, is voluntarily recalling approximately 102
pounds of hamburger patties and bulk ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2007 - American Foods Group, LLC, a Green Bay, Wisc., firm, is voluntarily recalling
approximately 95,927 pounds of various coarse and fine ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E.
coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2007 – Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., a Wyalusing, Pa., firm, is voluntarily recalling approximately
1,084,384 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2007 - Del-Mar Provision Co., Inc., a Buffalo, N.Y., firm, is voluntarily recalling approximately 50
pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2007 - Blue Ribbon Meats, a Hialeah, Fla., establishment is voluntarily recalling approximately
8,200 pounds of frozen ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2007 - Arko Veal Co., a Forest Park, Ga., establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately
1,900 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2007 - J & B Meats Corporation Inc., a Coal Valley, Ill., establishment, is voluntarily recalling
approximately 173,554 pounds of frozen ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2007 - Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation is voluntarily recalling approximately 845,000 pounds of
frozen ground beef patties produced at its Butler, Wis., location because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2007 – Impero Foods & Meats, Inc., a Baltimore, Md. establishment, is voluntarily recalling
approximately 65 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7
WASHINGTON, September 5, 2007 - Fairbank Reconstruction Corp., doing business as Fairbank Farms, an Ashville, N.Y.,
establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 884 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated
with E. coli O157:H7
WHY?
• Consumers like to eat undercooked ground beef!
• Cooking instructions and cooking platforms do not align
themselves!
• Some products may not be designed to be “safe” on all
kinds of cooking platforms!
• ????? WHY and What can we do to alleviate the risk.
The “Best” Ground Beef Patty!
• “A simple definition of top-quality ground beef could be
‘superior particle definition with a minimum of smearing
[fat and lean separation] providing for optimum product
texture and yield.’”
• Producing top-quality ground beef is directly related to the
amount of mechanical energy introduced to the raw
material.
• “Generally speaking, the less mechanical energy, the better
the quality of ground beef,”. “The challenge is to offer the
gentlest processes of introducing this mechanical energy,
resulting in high-quality ground beef, acceptable shelf life,
and maximized food safety.
Ground Beef Patty Challenges
• Producing ground beef at higher volumes while
maintaining or improving product quality is the biggest
challenge facing industry,
• Temperature control is another important element in
making ground beef. Equipment manufacturers say that
the most effective method is the CO2 injection system
in the final mixer or mixer/grinder.
• Paying attention to the detail already mentioned will
result in ground beef patties with high water-holding
capacity, low purge, and high cook yield,”
Ground Beef Patty Challenges
(cont)
• The biggest challenges in producing top-quality
hamburgers are controlling process variation, delivering
better cooking characteristics, and ensuring the correct
texture.
• Indeed, there is both an art and a science to making
hamburger !
Factors Which Affect Product
Performance
• Raw Materials
– Meat
– Others; seasoning and spices
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Processing equipment
Freezing
Packaging
Cooking Platform
Cold Chain Management
People
Ground Beef Production Factors
• Raw materials
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Fresh and frozen
Lean and fat
Other ingredients
Temperature
Age
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Processing Equipment
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Storage areas
Tempering frozen
Pre-break Grinders
Pre-Grind Grinders
Blending Equipment
Mixing / Grinding
Forming
Freezing
Packaging
Ground Beef Production
• Raw Materials
– Variety of inputs; lean trim, fat trim, low
temperature rendered products, etc….
– Variety of suppliers; cow plants, fed livestock plants,
imported beef trim, secondary meat recovery
systems, etc…
– Variety of processing methods; tempering and
storage, pre-break, pre-grind, pre-blend, blending
and mixing, forming, freezing, etc…
– Other Ingredients, spices and seasonings
Variety of Processing Equipment
Patty Process
• The production grinding process is designed to extract soluble
proteins. These soluble proteins act to bind the ground matrix
in a patty. The ideal grinding system is one that can deal with
the variability of raw material inputs and create a usable
product.
• The production patty forming system is designed to create the
proper shape, size and weight of the specified product. It must
be well maintained including proper tooling and have the ability
to form patties using different matrices.
Other Factors Affecting Patty
Performance
• Patty configuration
– Weight, size (l x w x t), shape
– Process forming (standard fill vs tenderform)
– Perforated or un-perforated
• Needle
• Knife
• Waffle
– Cooking platforms
Cooking Demonstration
How Patties are Made
• Patty-forming equipment has essentially evolved from
foot-operated wooden machines in the 1930s to handoperated machines to state-of-the-art hydraulic and
electronic equipment in 2005.
• Cuber-Perforator speeds freezing, reduces energy
consumption and delivers a faster cooking patty while
maintaining more of their original size. Optional knife
styles for cubing, scoring and knitting are available. The
Cuber-Perforator is available on all Formax® models.
High Speed Patty Production
Creating a Safer Patty
• Tender-Form® fill plate takes the product flow through
vertical holes, producing strands of meat similar to a meat
grinder. Its advantage comes from the vertical columns of
meat and the air spaces formed between them. When the
meat is formed into patty shapes, the small spaces between
the vertical strands assure a fluffier, homemade texture.
This process guarantees more efficient freezing and
cooking since the hot or cold air can easily reach the patty
center via the small space between the meat strands.
Perforated versus Non-Perforated
Packaging and Its’ Impact
Temperature,
Temperature,
Temperature!