| dc.description.abstract | Cooked ham is one of the most consumed RTE - Ready to Eat, products in the world, and its quality is influenced by several factors, ranging from raw material selection, composition and brine level, mechanical treatment, cooking and cooling, factors that influence the microbiological, sensory, technological and nutritional quality of the product. Cooling is considered a critical step in the processing of ready-to-eat cooked food, taking place properly and preventing the development of microorganisms. Cooling efficiency is characterized by the relationship between time and temperature, the shorter the cooling time, the greater the efficiency of the system. Thus, the objective of this work was to analyze the current procedure for cooling cooked ham in a processing unit that uses immersion tanks and a water spray room, and to suggest a possible readjustment of the process flow considering the variables time and the temperature. Two alternative flows were suggested for cooling the cooked ham, with 3 different dwell times in the first stage, flow 1: part of the cooling in the sprinkler room ending in dip tanks and flow 2: starting the cooling in the dip tank and following to the chilled water sprinkler room. After analyzing the cooling process and with the construction of temperature profiles, it was found that, in immersion tanks, it took 170 minutes to reach 8.0 ° C on the surface of the ham pieces. For the suggestions, cooling flow 1, the most efficient was with a residence time of 57 minutes in the spray room, totaling a cooling time of 158 minutes. For cooling stream 2, dip tank followed to the sprinkler room, and cooling only in the sprinkler room did not prove to be efficient. To speed up the ham cooling process Once cooked, it is necessary to install water agitators in the immersion tanks and fans in the chilled water spray room. | |
