Food Safety Tools
Operators can choose from improved products and new training techniques as the private sector responds to food safety issues. In this section, time/temperature tags are reviewed.

An adhesive strip that tracks the temperature of meat, fish, and produce from preparation to consumption is being hailed as a new weapon in the battle for food safety.

Although time/temperature integrator tags (TTI) have been around for a few years, they gained momentum when they were recommended for ground beef processing in new federal guidelines from the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS).

The adhesive-backed TTI's indicate any departure from safe temperature ranges and can be used for meat, poultry, seafood, produce, live plants, and most other temperature-sensitive commodities.

The technology employs color indicators to show the amount of temperature exposure of a stored or shipped temperature-sensitive commodity. The dots on the tag change from green to yellow as the product's life span decreases. Because the tags are adhesive, they can be placed on or inside boxes, or used as specialized insert strips for palletized loads.

Sources: USDA online; Food Safety & Inspection Service online; Cox Technologies press release online