Microbiological quality of broiler carcasses during processing in two slaughterhouses in Turkey

Abstract

The effect of processing procedures on the microbial quality and safety of broiler carcasses was investigated in 2 processing plants. Neck skin samples were taken from broilers at the main stages of processing and changes in total viable count (TVC) and in the counts of Coliforms, Enterobacteriaceae, and Staphylococci/Micrococci were monitored. Processing reduced TVC more than 2 log cycles for the 2 processing plants investigated. The counts of Coliform bacteria decreased from 5.35 to 3.99 log cfu/g, Enterobacteriaceae from 5.36 to 3.81 log cfu/g, and Staphylococci/Micrococci from 6.90 to 4.11 log cfu/g for the first processing plant. The counts of Coliforms, Enterobacteriaceae, and Staphylococci/Micrococci were reduced from 5.67 to 3.92 log cfu/g, from 5.75 to 3.91 log cfu/g, and from 6.85 to 3.94 log cfu/g, respectively, by processing in the second plant. Cross-contamination with Salmonella spp. during processing was observed and the incidences of Salmonella spp. on the carcasses increased from 40 to 60% and from 33.3 to 40% during processing at plants 1 and 2, respectively. The incidences of Salmonella spp. in all broilers (n = 90 carcasses for each plant) were 36.6 and 31.1% at plants 1 and 2, respectively. Although a high proportion of microorganisms were removed from carcasses during processing, dissemination of Salmonella spp. was found to be unavoidable.

A comparison of fluctuations of Campylobacter and Escherichia coli concentrations on broiler chicken carcasses during processing in two slaughterhouses

“…E. coli concentrations significantly decreased after defeathering in Slaughterhouse 1 by 1.26 log 10 and in Slaughterhouse 2 by 0.44 log 10 , whereas Campylobacter increased in Slaughterhouse 2 by 0.41 log 10 and in Slaughterhouse 1 no significant changes were observed. Decrease after defeathering in Enterobacteriaceae (Göksoy et al, 2004;Oosterom et al, 1983) and in Coliforms (Göksoy et al, 2004) was previously reported. The opposite impact of defeathering on Campylobacter and E. coli can be related to potential differences in their ability to attach to the skin.…”

Microbiological quality of imported frozen broiler meat in Jordan

“…Amara et al (1994) found that TAPC in broiler meat varied between 6 x 10 6 and 10 7 CFU/g, whereas Avadi and Safarmashaei (2011) calculated the mean of TAPC to be equivalent to 10 5 CFU/g. Similar results were also obtained from different countries such as Turkey, Pakistan and Morocco (Göksoy et al, 2004;Chaudhrya et al, 2011;Cahaba et al, 2007). The remarkable difference between our results and those of others could be attributed to one or both of the following factors: first, all lots analyzed were frozen and the process of freezing by itself is antagonistic against the growth of microorganisms; second, The Jordan FDA is very demanding in the registration of foreign companies that export food into the kingdom, compliance with the rules and regulations of HACCP is a pri-requisite for registration and at random these companies are subject to inspection by JFDA experts.…”

“…were never detected in any of the broiler meat tested in the current work, it has been detected in 15.39% of chicken breast fillets and 10.53% of frozen ground chicken tested by Kozačinski et al (2006). Quite high figures of Salmonella contamination was reported by Göksoy et al (2004) who emphasized that such a contamination is affected by the procedures followed in the slaughter houses or the processing plants. These authors have highlighted the sources of contamination as follows: 1. the rapid rate of production keeps the birds in close proximity throughout processing; 2. limitations in the design of processing equipment, including that used in scalding, defeathering, and evisceratio; 3. the difficulty of washing the abdominal cavity effectively after evisceration when the carcass remains as a full body; 4. retention of water by skin, which tends to entrap bacteria in the crevices and feather follicles.…”

Self-Monitoring Microbiological Criteria for the Assessment of Hygienic Procedures During Chicken Slaughtering

“…Finally, Sl3 presented an increase of sample frequencies with counts higher than reference values of mesophilic aerobes and E. coli among C1 and C2 (Figure 1), despite their mean counts being significantly different (Table 3). These results demonstrate the relevance of the intermediary stages of slaughtering as potential sources of microbiological contamination, like the automatic evisceration in large slaughterhouses in which the control can be more difficult (Goksoy et al, 2004;Matias et al, 2010;Rodrigues et al, 2008;Vaidya et al, 2005;Zweifel et al, 2015). In addition, based on this analysis it becomes clear that there is a need to consider additional microbiological criteria to assess the hygienic procedures in chicken slaughterhouses.…”