RESEARCH ▶▶▶
Effects of anti-microbial interventions during the slaughter process
Poultry processors apply several anti-microbial interventions to avoid cross contamination of Salmonella, Campylobacter and Escherichia coli. Researchers looked into the impact of pH on the efficacy of peroxy acetic acid in combatting these bugs in the processing plant.
BY VADDU, KATARIA, RAMA, MOLLER, GOURU, SINGH AND THIPPAREDDI, POULTRY SCIENCE
Foodborne path- ogens Salmonel- la and Campylo- bacter are commensals in broilers but do not cause any disease in the birds. There is a risk of meat con- tamination how- ever.
W
ith increasing chicken meat consumption, greater number of broilers are being raised and processed. Foodborne pathogens Salmo- nella and Campylobacter are commensals in
broiler gastrointestinal tract and, in most cases, do not cause any disease in the birds. The current step order in poultry pro- cessing presents a potential risk of cross contamination be- tween carcasses during primary processing (slaughter) and of the meat during any second processing step (cut up and fur- ther processing) as a source of human foodborne disease. In the USA approx 25,000 notifications of foodborne disease, with 120 deaths, were reported in 2018. The USA applies
performance standards for poultry processing for Salmonella and Campylobacter prevalence after chilling and for chicken parts. The Salmonella and Campylobacter performance standards for broiler carcasses, chicken parts and comminut- ed chicken meat are 9.8% and 15.7%, 15.4% and 7.7%, and 25% and 1.9%, respectively.
Avoiding cross contamination As live birds are often contaminated with these potential pathogens, in order to avoid cross contamination and further contamination poultry processors apply several anti-microbi- al interventions during the slaughter process. Anti-microbials are mostly used after picking, in the inside/outside bird wash- er or in the chiller water. For this purpose peroxy acetic acid is the preferred chemical and poultry processors generally use this chemical at pH levels from natural, ranging between 4.5 and 6.0, up to pH 8.0. At a lower pH the acid is more effective but also affects moisture loss from the carcasses and even causes corrosion of the equipment. As the USDA performance standards also prescribe that processors utilise Escherichia coli as indicator organisms for process control, in this study the efficacy of peroxy acetic acid in combatting Salmonella, Cam- pylobacter and Escherichia coli was estimated at different pH levels. The effects were tested on chicken wings that had been artificially inoculated with Salmonella typhimurium, Campylobacter coli and Escherichia coli strains. Inoculated chicken wings were immersed (for 10 seconds or 60 minutes) in peroxy acetic acid solutions at natural pH, pH 8.2 or pH 10.0 and rinsed. Serial dilutions of the rinses were used to estimate the effects on bacterial populations.
Significant results At neutral pH for 60 minutes the effects were significantly better than with other treatments. In general, higher concen- trations and longer exposure resulted in greater reductions in the bacterial populations, while increasing the pH to 8.2 and 10.0 did not improve efficacy. A strong correlation was found for the effects of the peroxy acetic acid treatment on the indi- cator strain Escherichia coli and on Salmonella, indicating that this indicator strain can be used for this purpose.
42 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 4, 2021
PHOTO: JAN WILLEM SCHOUTEN
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