The triad of food safety in smoke production
When producing semi-preserved seafood products, i.e. smoked and/or marinated fish, it is imperative to abide by "the golden triad" of food safety; control of raw material supply, cleaning and stabilization. Being in control of these three factors during processing will ensure safe products and eliminate the risk of listeria growth for the entire shelf life of the product.
Royal Greenland's smokehouse in Hirtshals, Northwestern Denmark, works with the three factors on a daily basis. This means that the risk of listeria growth in products from the factory has now been as well as eliminated.
Raw material supply
Food safety starts before salmon and Greenland halibut has even arrived at the smokehouse, at the suppliers and fishermen procuring the raw material. Strict quality demands for our suppliers and careful handling of the fish before it enters production, ensures that the quality of the raw material is as good as possible. Read more about how we ensure raw material of the absolute best quality for the smokehouse here. Once processing begins it takes place according to our self-monitoring program based on the HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) principles - a systematic preventive approach to food safety from biological, chemical, and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe, and designs methods to reduce these risks to a safe level.
Daily cleaning
It is obvious that hygiene is essential when working with food production. At the smokehouse, it is never necessary with an extra effort in the cleaning department, as it is simply a part of the daily routine. For instance, slicing machines are disassembled in the production breaks and cleaned thoroughly, as contaminants are known to gather here and can re-contaminate products that have been uncontaminated up until this final stage in the processing. The daily cleaning makes sure that any contaminants that may have entered the production, for example via raw material, are eliminated.
Stabilizing to eliminate growth of contaminants
As a final precaution, a direct result of a research project in cooperation with DTU , Royal Greenland uses acidifiers in the salting process, in order to stabilize the products and prevent growth of listeria, should there be any present. The research project showed that by adding certain organic acids, lowering the pH value of the product, it was possible to stop any listeria growth during the shelf life of the product. The acidifiers do not influence the taste or the appearance of the product. In practice, this means that the product is safe and the level of listeria (if any) cannot grow to dangerous levels. Stabilizing has been used at the Royal Greenland facility since 2010 for Greenland Halibut and since 2011 for salmon.
