Sous‐vide Cooking and its Application to Cook‐chill – What Does the Future Hold?

Abstract

The changing demands of consumers, advances in technology and the pressures of the economic climate have led to many changes in catering over the last two decades. Among other systems introduced to rationalise large‐scale catering are cook‐freeze and cook‐chill, with the latter becoming increasingly popular due to its advantages in energy saving and food (textural) quality over cook‐freeze. However, the microbiological risks of cook‐chill have always been acknowledged as being higher than those inherent in cook‐freeze and, in a recent survey of operations in the UK, cook‐chill food was regarded only as poor to good by consumers – few “high‐class” caterers were found to be using the system. New systems which utilise vacuum packaging either before or after cooking in combination with the chilling techniques of cook‐chill are becoming more popular and appear to give higher quality food. Sous‐vide cuisine is one of these. In combination with cook‐chill (sous‐vide/cook‐chill), this method is claimed to give rise to a host of benefits yet very little laboratory research work has been published on sous‐vide/cook‐chill. The few research publications on the sous‐vide/cook‐chill method in the context of food safety and the use of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and quality assurance techniques like Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) are discussed. It is argued that sous‐vide/cook‐chill, like standard cook‐chill itself, should be regarded more as food manufacturing methods than catering methods.

Citation

Schafheitle, J.M. and Light, N.D. (1989), "Sous‐vide Cooking and its Application to Cook‐chill – What Does the Future Hold?", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 1 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000001660