Titan Corporation Moves Forward With Meat Irradiation Plans
Collectively, the companies with which Titan has executed agreements produce approximately 50% of the 8 billion pounds of ground beef produced in the United States annually. The agreements include exclusivity arrangements calling for Titan to be the source of choice for meat product electronic pasteurization for the next several years, when the companies elect to pasteurize these products.
"Titan is extremely pleased that these companies have agreed for Titan to be their source for effectively eliminating the threat of food borne pathogens in raw ground beef," said Dr. Gene Ray, president and CEO of Titan.
Titan's electronic pasteurization process, which utilizes its SureBeam technology, has proven to be a safe and effective method of eliminating pathogens in food without using radioactive elements such as Cobalt 60. (See related article: "E-Beam Technology Enters the Food Irradiation Market": )
The SureBeam system offers an end-point, terminal safety treatment as part of a processor's HACCP Program and uses commercial electricity as the source of electrons that are accelerated to pass through the food, which effectively destroys food borne pathogens.
The system currently under construction at the Cloverleaf facility in Sioux City will be capable of processing in excess of 50 million pounds of ground beef or other meat products annually. The company estimates that in excess of 150 Titan systems across the U.S. could be required to address the potential demand for the ground beef market alone. The facility is expected to be operational later this year. As market acceptance demands, Titan will provide additional service facilities or turnkey systems installed in the customer's production line.
"Titan's SureBeam system is as safe as a microwave oven. It can be integrated directly into a food processor's production line, or Titan can own and operate contract electronic pasteurization service centers similar to the Iowa system," added Ray.
Cloverleaf, which will provide refrigerated U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved food staging, storage and processing facilities and logistical support for Titan's new system, has three facilities in Sioux City and operates eight other cold storage warehouses in Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Oklahoma.
"Cloverleaf has been actively involved in food packaging and preservation for nearly fifty years both as a public refrigerated warehouse and through our Farmers Produce meat processing and packaging division," said Cloverleaf spokesman, Dan Kaplan.
Titan is also expanding and extending its existing strategic relationship with APA, Inc. (Omaha, NE), relating to the architectural and engineering efforts required to implement electronic pasteurization systems into food processing facilities. The architectural/engineering and food-consulting firm will provide the architecture-engineering capability to fully integrate E-Beam/X-Ray systems into food facilities worldwide.
"Titan's strategic alliances with Cloverleaf and APA are important steps toward the company's objective to become the premier provider of electronic pasteurization services and systems in the world," said Ray.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service have approved E-Beam technology as a source of ionizing radiation to effectively kill dangerous food borne bacteria. The USDA recently released for comment a draft of proposed rules that would allow red meat companies to use this technology to pasteurize fresh and frozen raw meats. The Titan Corporation will be responding to the USDA proposal in the next few weeks. Approvals and rules already exist for many other food products including fresh fruits and vegetables, spices, NASA entrees, wheat and wheat flour.
The Titan Corporation, headquartered in San Diego, CA, is a leading provider and integrator of state-of-the-art information technology, satellite communications systems and services, and medical product sterilization and food pasteurization products and services.