Ekkawit Saenkhum. Development of appropriate educational tools and safe production processes for food products packed in hermetically sealed containers for the cottage industry in Thailand. Master's Degree(Food and Nutrition for Development). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2005.
Development of appropriate educational tools and safe production processes for food products packed in hermetically sealed containers for the cottage industry in Thailand
Abstract:
Food products packed in hermetically sealed containers have been produced in the cottage industry for decades; however, the involved parties, i.e. government extensionist and producers are still lacking knowledge on safe production and appropriate quality assurance processes. The products have a high risk of botulinum poisoning, since they have pH and water activity values higher than 4.6 and 0.85, respectively, and are processed under improper conditions. Educational tools were therefore developed in order to provide basic knowledge on the botulinum toxin and specific information on safe production processes for small-scale producers. The 1st set of tools, including a video tape and pamphlet, was in play style containing information on Clostridium botulinum. The knowledge test given to 130 subjects including 41 government officers and 89 producers, indicated that on average all groups improved from < 50% to 80% (76% for producer and 90% for officer groups). The pilot-scale study indicated the feasibilities for improving safety of food products that were normally produced in the cottage industry i.e. at least 13 kinds of food produced as acidified and acid foods (pH < 4.6) and 2 kinds of low water activity food (aw < 0.85). Acids used for acidification were citric and malic at 0.017 - 0.55% of packing media. Deep frying and salt-adding were used for lowering water activities of canned frog and bottled curry paste, respectively. Process modifications were required in certain products to obtain the target pH, i.e. bamboo shoot needed to be boiled twice to remove natural buffering agents; pork needed to be excluded from the original recipe. Details of the developed production processes were included in video tape and booklet and tested for its effectiveness on 126 subjects including 5 government officers, 34 canned bamboo shoot producers, 42 traders and 45 vocational students. The post-test results indicated that the producers obtained a score of only 29.4%, while the government officers and extensionists could obtained 90%. This latter tool was more appropriate to academic and extensionist professionals due to lots of detail and a wide variety of information.