Objective In order to minimise the growth of pathogens in the cooked meat industry, strict EU guidelines demand that cooked meat joints including ham, turkey, chicken, pork and beef be cooled within tight time limits post cooking, whereby meat joints should not exceed 2.5 kg and 100 mm in thickness and should be chilled from 74 to 10ºC within 2.5 h after being removed from the cooking process. Conventional cooling methods such as air blast (AB), cold room and immersion cooling depend on heat conduction to cool the inside of the joints, but the relatively low thermal conductivity of meat coupled with the necessity to maintain a temperature of the cooling menstrum above 2ºC (to avoid surface freezing) makes it difficult to increase the rate of cooling significantly. Vacuum cooling is a rapid evaporative cooling technique for moist and porous products that offers many advantages over conventional cooling methods, such as short processing time, extension of product shelf life and improvement of product quality, safety and nutritional content. However it leads to considerable weight loss and, due to high moisture loss, vacuum cooked meats are slightly less tender, drier and darker. There a need to provide cooked meat producers with an effective rapid cooling method. A novel combined cook–cool technique known as immersion vacuum cooling (IVC) has recently been researched, whereby the vacuum cooling of cooked meat together with some of its cooking solution was explored for its potential use for rapid cooling of water-cooked meat joints. Reduced yield losses and improved quality for cooked pork ham have been reported. This project will build on this past research in order to apply and validate the technique in industry and to plan for the post-project commercial scale up of the IVC system and its subsequent market entry, whereby its uptake will improve the competitiveness of European SMEs from the cooked meats industry. Programme(s) FP7-SME - Specific Programme "Capacities": Research for the benefit of SMEs Topic(s) SME-1 - Research for SMEs Call for proposal FP7-SME-2010-1 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme BSG-SME - Research for SMEs Coordinator IRIS TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA EU contribution € 34 198,85 Address CARRETERA D ESPLUGUES 39 41 08940 CORNELLA DE LLOBREGAT Spain See on map Region Este Cataluña Barcelona Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Colm Digby (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (7) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all MC CARREN & COMPANY LIMITED Ireland EU contribution € 196 022,00 Address FARNHAM ROAD Cavan See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Andrew Mc Carron (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data EMBUTIDOS DAZA SL Spain EU contribution € 141 841,40 Address CALLE ESTORIL 1 08210 BARBERA DEL VALLES See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Alicia Daza (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Stephens Fresh Foods Ltd United Kingdom EU contribution € 247 844,00 Address REVENGE ROAD 53 UNITS 20/21 LORDSWOOD INDUSTRIAL ESTATE ME5 8UD CHATHAM See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Alan Davies (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data DUNREIDY ENGINEERING LIMITED Ireland EU contribution € 233 440,70 Address Hebron Industrial Estate Unit 53 Kilkenny See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Dunne Donal (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN Ireland EU contribution € 27 859,20 Address BELFIELD 4 Dublin See on map Region Ireland Eastern and Midland Dublin Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Adriana Delgado (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data TEKNOLOGISK INSTITUT Denmark EU contribution € 19 244,00 Address GREGERSENSVEJ 1 2630 Taastrup See on map Region Danmark Hovedstaden Københavns omegn Activity type Research Organisations Administrative Contact Lars Hinrichsen (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data THE FOOD MACHINERY COMPANY LIMITED United Kingdom EU contribution € 258 088,00 Address FENN CORNER ST MARY HOO ME3 8RF ROCHESTER See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Mike Wilkinson (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data