Meta-analysis of the incidence of foodborne pathogens in Portuguese meats and their products

Abstract

Meat and meat products are the main vehicles of foodborne diseases in humans caused by pathogens such as Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) and Staphylococcus aureus. In order to prioritise research on those microbial hazards, a meta-analysis study was conducted to summarise available information on the presence of such pathogens in meats produced in Portugal. By using a logit-transformed proportion as effect size parameterisation, a number of multilevel random-effect meta-analysis models were fitted to estimate mean occurrence rates of pathogens, and to compare them among meat categories (i.e., bovine meat, broiler meat, pork, minced beef and minced pork), and among meat product categories (i.e., intended to be eaten cooked, to be eaten raw and cured meats). The mean occurrence rate of Campylobacter in Portuguese broiler meat (40%; 95% CI: 22.0-61.4%) was about ten times higher than that of Salmonella (4.0%; 95% CI: 1.4-10.8%); although these levels were comparable to current EU ranges. Nevertheless, in the other meat categories, the meta-analysed incidences of Salmonella were slightly to moderately higher than EU averages. A semi-quantitative risk ranking of pathogens in Portuguese-produced pork pointed Salmonella spp. as critical (with a mean occurrence of 12.6%; 95% CI: 8.0-19.3%), and Y. enterocolitica as high (6.8%; 95% CI: 2.2-19.3%). In the case of the Portuguese meat products, the non-compliance to EU microbiological criteria for L. monocytogenes (8.8%; 95% CI: 6.5-11.8%) and Salmonella spp. (9.7%; 95% CI: 7.0-13.4%) at sample units level, in the categories 'intended to be eaten cooked' and 'to be eaten raw', were considerably higher than EU levels for ready-to-eat products in comparable categories. S. aureus was the pathogen of greatest concern given its high occurrence (22.6%; 95% CI: 15.4-31.8%) in meat products. These results emphasised the necessity of Portuguese food safety agencies to take monitoring, and training actions for the maintenance of good hygiene practices during the production of the great variety of traditional meat products. This meta-analysis study also highlighted important gaps of knowledge, and may assist food safety authorities in the prioritisation of microbiological hazards, and the implementation of essential food safety assurance systems at primary production.

Detection of Salmonella spp. and diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in fresh pork sausages

“…This difference in contamination can be explained by the fact that Portugal does not have a national program for the control of Salmonella in primary production, although it has a monitoring system for the contamination of pork carcasses after slaughter. Control strategies should be implemented on farms to reduce carcass contamination because cross-contamination during slaughter is the most common form of contamination of pork meat and its derivatives (XAVIER et al, 2014).…”

Prevalence of Pathogens in Poultry Meat: A Meta-Analysis of European Published Surveys

“…As a statistical analysis of a large collection of results from published studies, meta-analysis aims to integrate and interpret the findings to achieve comprehensive conclusions that the individual studies alone would not demonstrate clearly [11]. In this study, the population is defined as raw poultry meat surveyed at the end of the processing stage or at retail establishments in Europe, while the measured outcome is the detection of pathogens.…”

Behaviour of food-borne pathogens on dry cured sausage manufactured with herbs and spices essential oils and their sensorial acceptability

“…(García-Díez & Patarata, 2013;Linares, Garrido, Martins, & Patarata, 2013). Portugal is characterized by a wide variety of traditional meat products that represents an important economical income in specific regions (Barbosa, Gibbs, & Teixeira, 2010;Xavier, Gonzales-Barron, Paula, Estevinho, & Cadavez, 2014) being chouriço, one the most representative of dry cured sausages. Chouriço-de-vinho (hereinafter referred only as chouriço) is a dry-cured meat sausage, made generally with roughly minced pork and fat.…”