Comparison of Microbiological Methods for Monitoring Chicken Carcass Quality

Abstract

Many methods have been developed to determine microbial levels in food products and these include ATP bioluminescence, hydrophobic grid membrane filtration (HGMF), impediometry and turbidimetry. A comparison of these techniques for detecting microbial levels in chicken carcass rinses was conducted. Only the ATP bioluminescence assay and the HGMF system showed a good correlation with plate counts (r = 0.82 and r = 0.83, respectively). The repeatability of these methods was acceptable. There was also a significant correlation between results obtained with two turbidimetric methods and HGMF as well as between HGMF and ATP bioluminescence data. However, only the ATP bioluminescence assay was able to provide results of microbial levels on a realtime basis (within 10 min). This would be beneficial for HACCP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points) based programs.

Evaluation of Adenosine Triphosphate (Atp) Bioluminescence for Estimating Bacteria on Surfaces of Beef Carcasses

“…At this level, populations of microorganisms cannot be accurately determined by the bioluminescence assay due to the background levels of ATP from nonmicrobial sources. Similar results have been reported for other foods (Bautista et al 1994a;Griffiths 1991;Olson 1991). However, Siragusa et al (1995a) have recently developed an ATP bioluminescence swab test for beef carcasses which claimed a sensitivity of 1 X lo2 CFU/cm2 and a good correlation (n = 108, r = 0.92) with aerobic plate count.…”