Opportunities for improved offal recovery and their validation (burst cattle paunches)

Summary

H.W. Greenham & Sons sought to undertake a validation trial to take advantage of recent research that demonstrated it is possible to salvage burst beef paunches without compromising food safety. In addition, the Project sought to identify opportunities to maximise the financial return on other offal products. 

A workshop and validation trial were undertaken. The two-day workshop was held to skill staff on research into offal recovery opportunities, identify losses, calculate the financial opportunities and prioritise action for improvement. Sixteen Greenham Staff attended the Offal Yield Improvement workshop on August 17 2002. Key outcomes included:

• Tracking offal was the biggest single issue at the Tongala plant.
• It is essential to allow operatives to contribute to the improvement process.
• The incidence of dropped tails needs to be reduced.
• The correct method of hanging of tongues needs to be employed.

The validation trial tested the null hypothesis that: 

The microbiological counts of scalded rumen tripe from burst paunches did not differ from those of intact paunches; and 

The microbiological counts of unscalded rumen pillars from burst paunches did not differ provided that the same sampling techniques were followed. A total of 200 samples were collected for analysis of Standard Plate Count (SPC), Coliforms and E.coli. All pathogen analyses were acceptable. The only difference of significance related to total counts for tripe for “all data” and for samples from “Room 1”. However, the difference was not meaningful given that the counts overall were very low. Data were also compared with data from the offal.com project. Tripe SPC counts from the Tongala Plant were much lower than those reported in the offal.com project.

Alternative procedures for collecting burst paunches were devised to enable H.W. Greenham & Sons to further comply with the AQIS Meat Notice 2001 / 21 “Enhanced Recovery of Green Offals at Exporting Slaughtering Establishments”. Only small amendments to existing work instructions were required. H.W. Greenham & Sons have demonstrated equivalence to meet AQIS requirements and have shown that the pathological counts of rumen pillars and tripe from burst paunches do not differ from those of intact paunches. As such, it is recommended that H.W. Greenham & Sons be allowed to salvage beef paunches, subject to final AQIS inspection, for further processing. 

This Project has also resulted in the following additional benefits to H.W. Greenham & Sons operations:
1. A reduction in the condemnation of beef paunches;
2. An increase in the financial returns from beef paunches; and
3. Identification of opportunities to maximise returns from other offal products.