Salmonellosis caused by chicken consumption has been a critical issue in food
safety worldwide, including in Korea. The probability of illness from
consumption of chicken was simulated in study, based on the recipe of Dakgalbi,
a commonly eaten chicken dish in Korea. Additionally, the processing stage at
slaughterhouses to decrease Salmonella concentration in
broilers was modeled to explore its effect on the likelihood of illness. A Monte
Carlo simulation model was created using @RISK. Prevalence of
Salmonella in chickens at the retail stage was found to be
predominantly important in determining the probability of illness. Other than
the prevalence, cooking temperature was found to have the largest impact on the
probability of illness. The results also demonstrated that, although
chlorination is a powerful tool for decreasing the Salmonella
concentration in chicken, this effect did not last long and was negated by the
following stages. This study analyzes the effects of variables of the
retail-to-table pathway on the likelihood of salmonellosis in broiler
consumption, and also evaluates the processing step used to decrease the
contamination level of Salmonella in broilers at
slaughterhouses. According to the results, we suggest that methods to decrease
the contamination level of Salmonella such as chlorination had
little effect on decreasing the probability of illness. Overall, these results
suggest that preventing contamination of broiler with
Salmonella must be a top priority and that methods to
reduce the concentration of Salmonella in broilers at
slaughterhouses hardly contribute to safe consumption of
Salmonella-contaminated chicken.