In poultry processing, Salmonella and Campylobacter contaminations are major food safety concerns. Peracetic acid (PAA) is an antimicrobial commonly used in commercial poultry processing to reduce pathogen prevalence so as to meet the USDA-FSIS performance standards. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter on broiler meat in various steps of commercial poultry processing in plants that use PAA. Post-pick, pre-chill, post-chill, and drumstick chicken samples were collected from three processing plants and mechanically deboned meat (MDM) was collected from two of the three plants. Each plant was sampled thrice, and 10 samples were collected from each processing step during each visit. Among the 420 samples, 79 were contaminated with Salmonella and 155 were contaminated with Campylobacter. Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination on the post-pick samples averaged 32.2%. Significant reductions in Salmonella and Campylobacter were observed in pre-chill to post-chill samples, where the prevalence was reduced from 34% and 64.4% to nondetectable limits and 1.1%, respectively (p < 0.001). Salmonella and Campylobacter remained undetectable on the drumstick samples in all three processing plants. However, the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter on MDM was similar to the post-pick prevalence, which suggests substantial cross-contamination from post-chill to MDM.

In poultry processing, spoilage microbes are persistent microorganisms, which affect the quality of broiler meat. Peracetic acid (PAA) is the most common antimicrobial used by commercial processing plants, which can reduce the prevalence of these microbes. The goal of this study was to determine the concentrations of aerobic bacteria, coliforms, lactic acid bacteria, and Pseudomonas on broiler meat in processing plants that use peracetic acid in various concentrations as the primary antimicrobial. Samples were collected from three processing plants at five processing steps: post-pick (defeathering), pre-chill, post-chill, mechanically deboned meat (MDM), and drumsticks. Samples were rinsed in buffered peptone water for bacteria isolation. Over six log CFU/sample of aerobic plate counts (APC), lactic acid bacteria, and coliforms were detected on post-pick samples. All spoilage bacteria were reduced to nondetectable levels on post-chill samples (p < 0.001). However, the presence of all bacteria on mechanically deboned meat (MDM) samples indicated varying degrees of cross contamination from post-chill and MDM samples. These results suggest PAA effectively reduces spoilage microbes in chilling applications irrespective of differences in PAA concentrations. However, due to the levels of spoilage microbes detected in MDM, it may be worth investigating the potential interventions for this stage of processing.