Abstract：The hygiene, safety and quality of foods depend on the hurdles in their processing and storage. Most meat products
have a pH greater than 5.2. Since food products with a water activity (aw) larger than 0.95 are apt to deteriorate or spoil, it
is necessary to apply hurdle technology for cold chain management in food processing and storage, otherwise the hurdles
such as aw, oxidation–reduction potential (Eh), competitive flora (c.f.) and preservatives may be inevitable, which are very
unfavorable for the overall quality of food products. By contrast, safer products with better overall quality can be produced by
using cold chain management as the main hurdle. Currently, there is extremely inadequate awareness about the important of
this hurdle, causing the problem of guaranteeing food quality to be the key to an enterprise’s economic benefits and also to be
an important potential food safety hazard. This paper focuses on a review of the fundamental principle of hurdle technology and
its application for cold chain management in the meat processing industry, which will be helpful to enhance peoples’ awareness
about the vital role of hurdle technology and particularly cold chain management in improving the quality and safety of meat
products and promote their application in the meat processing industry.
2013, Vol. 27 
