A popular food item in the United States is the breaded, fried chicken nugget, a bag of which consumers can keep frozen at home to cook later. Now, several plant-based nugget options have arrived in supermarket freezers for consumers to purchase.
Over the last year, research has found that consumers have been increasingly likely to purchase food products which they can prepare at home, including interesting meat-alternative options that look and taste like traditional meat-based foods. There is a need for products which can be safely and quickly prepared with the consumer’s existing home kitchen equipment.
Since these products already look precooked and are intended to be reheated at home, it is important that food processors use food safety protocols and food-safe handling processes to reduce the consumer’s risk of contracting a foodborne illness, which means that the nuggets should be fully cooked prior to packaging. Marlen’s Spiral Oven technology is designed to fully cook nuggets fast and safely, which promotes product safety for these popular consumer packaged goods.
The Rise of the Chicken (and Plant-Based) Nugget
Chicken nuggets were invented after World War II by Cornell Professor Robert C. Baker. He developed what he called “chicken sticks,” which used chicken processed into a mash that is held together with grains, salt, spices, and vinegar. These proved to be quite popular with people who didn’t want to prepare and roast a whole chicken at home in the time after the war was over, and they paved the way for what we now know as a chicken nugget.
Innovation didn’t stop with Professor Baker’s work. In recent years, plant-based “chicken” has grown in popularity. Several companies now offer nuggets made out of various kinds of plant-based protein, such as: Conagra’s brand Gardein offering Chick’n Nuggets made from a blend of pea and wheat protein; Kellogg’s brand MorningStar Farms offering Chik’n Nuggets which are made from non-GMO soy; Tyson’s Raised & Rooted brand offering Plant-Based Nuggets made from a blend of pea protein and other plant ingredients; and Impossible Foods will soon offer nuggets with a newly improved formula made of sunflower oil and texturized soy. These consumer packaged goods are sure to be popular with the rise of the modern “flexitarian” diet, which prioritizes plant-based options without strictly prohibiting meat and dairy.
Why Food Safety is a Top Priority for Nugget Processing
Chicken and plant-based nuggets are often believed to be fully cooked based on the color of the bread coating and images on the packaging. These breaded products are great examples of the need for food safety protocols that ensure the product is fully cooked. As it concerns chicken nuggets specifically, non-RTE chicken nuggets and other breaded chicken products have been recalled in the past due to possible contamination. And consumers may be unlikely to fully heat-treat their nuggets before consumption, specifically because “consumers wrongly regard and treat battered/breaded chicken products as fully cooked (due to the applied surface browning step) and only reheat them before consumption…thus not ensuring elimination of pathogenic bacteria” (Lianou et al., 2021). A validated heat-treatment step prior to packaging will ensure that these chicken nuggets are pathogen free, thus protecting the consumer from foodborne illness.
Additionally, and contrary to what some consumers may believe, plant-based food options can also spread foodborne illness if not cooked properly. This means that plant-protein nugget production will also benefit from food processing equipment which fully cooks the product prior to packaging.
Recent reports are showing that consumers are increasingly interested in at-home eating, a strategy likely due in part to the delta-variant surge of the pandemic. With this increase in at-home eating, it is important that food processors maintain their product safety to protect these consumers. The worry is real: recently, Tyson has been in the news for recalling nearly 9 million pounds of frozen, fully cooked chicken that may have been contaminated with listeria. Indeed, recent reports show that two-thirds of food processors expect food-safety claims to rise in the near future. Products like the chicken nugget and its plant-protein cousins could be a mainstay in many US consumer freezers this year, and so food processors need to ensure their customers that the risk for foodborne illness is low.
Marlen Spiral Ovens Promote Food Safety
A critical step in the process of preparing chicken and plant-based nuggets is a validated heat treatment step post-fryer. From a food safety point of view, it is insufficient to par-fry the nuggets prior to packaging with the expectation that customers will reheat the product to a temperature which would kill any potential pathogens.
The Marlen Spiral Oven is designed to fully cook chicken nuggets fast and safely. The nuggets travel in the oven along a conveyor belt which spirals upward in a welded enclosure. The oven can be set to a temperature which will eliminate bacteria in food products by steaming or using uniform dry heat evenly applied across the surface of the entire belt. The oven’s control system automatically adjusts energy levels to maintain a consistent operating condition within the oven’s housing, allowing food processors to validate lethality protocols.
The compact footprint of Marlen Spirals allows food processors of all sizes to add this versatile food processing equipment to their existing lines as a validated heat-treatment step post-fryer. Any par-fried chicken and plant-based nuggets can be easily heat treated to make sure they are fully cooked prior to packaging, keeping consumers safe from possible foodborne illnesses.
