Cook-chill, cook-freeze, cook-hold, sous vide: risks for hospital patients?

Abstract

Changes in eating habits and developments in food technology are occurring at the same time as an upward trend in foodborne infection in Britain. Vulnerable people such as the elderly and hospital patients are increasingly likely to consume food produced by new systems such as ‘cookchill’ and ‘ cuisson sous vide’. The microbiological hazards of these systems are assessed as negligible, provided that production is controlled by appropriate methods such as the hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) approach. The occurrence and control of bacterial contamination in a hospital cook-chill system is reviewed in this context.