Pathogen reduction system for the preparation of food products

A system for preparing packages of sliced food product from a piece of said food product while minimizing bacterial contamination and outgrowth within the packaged food product, the system comprising:

• a powered slicer having a blade;
• a support for holding the piece of food product and moving it gradually into the blade of the powered slicer, the blade acting to sequentially separate slices of the food product from the piece of food product to create a stack of food product slices, each having a forward face and a reverse face with an exposed face of the piece of food product from which the slices are cut becoming the forward face of the next slice, said slicer being operable to operate the blade at a rate of up to 1,500 revolutions per minute such that the powered slicer produces up to 1,500 slices per minute;
• a fluid source for providing a liquid antimicrobial preparation;
• a first variable speed pulsating spray nozzle for depositing a first predetermined amount of the antimicrobial preparation only onto the forward face of each slice each time a slice is removed from the piece of food product such that the reverse face remains untreated with said antimicrobial preparation as it falls into the stack and the antimicrobial preparation sprayed onto the forward face is spread by contact onto the untreated reverse face of the preceding slice sufficient for effectively treating the reverse face of the slice against bacterial contamination;
• said pulsating nozzle being intermittently operated based upon the operating speed of the slicer blade for providing a predetermined pulse and quantity of antimicrobial preparation onto the forward face of each slice for the particular operating rate of the slicer blade;
• a control for controlling the frequency and duration of the pulse of the first spray nozzle for a particular slicing operation of the food product;
• a vacuum pouch system for providing a vacuum pouch to receive each stack of food product slice;
• and
• a second spray nozzle for depositing a second predetermined amount of the antimicrobial preparation into each vacuum pouch prior to reception of a stack within the pouch;
• wherein the second predetermined amount of the antimicrobial preparation deposited into each vacuum pouch is configured to coat a second face of the topmost slice in each stack and the side faces of all slices in each stack, which were previously untreated.