Abstract
The purpose of this study was to 1) identify microbial compositional changes on chicken carcasses during processing, 2) determine the antimicrobial efficacy of peracetic acid (PAA) and Amplon (blend of sulfuric acid and sodium sulfate) at a poultry processing pilot plant scale, and 3) compare microbial communities between chicken carcass rinsates and recovered bacteria from media. Birds were collected from each processing step and rinsates were applied to estimate aerobic plate count (APC) and Campylobacter as well as Salmonella prevalence. Microbiome sequencing was utilized to identify microbial population changes over processing and antimicrobial treatments. Only the PAA treatment exhibited significant reduction of APC at the post chilling step while both Amplon and PAA yielded detectable Campylobacter reductions at all steps. Based on microbiome sequencing, Firmicutes were the predominant bacterial group at the phyla level with over 50% frequency in all steps while the relative abundance of Proteobacteria decreased as processing progressed. Overall microbiota between rinsate and APC plate microbial populations revealed generally similar patterns at the phyla level but they were different at the genus level. Both antimicrobials appeared to be effective on reducing problematic bacteria and microbiome can be utilized to identify optimal indicator microorganisms for enhancing product quality.
Highlights
Peracetic acid (PAA), a mixture of acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, has been used as an antimicrobial in the food and poultry industries since PAA rapidly decomposes to acetic acid, oxygen, and water without formation of toxic residues, it can be applied, and it is economical due to its relatively low cost[17]
Amplon is comprised of ingredients which are classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is an approved processing aid and antimicrobial by the USDA (FSIS 7120.1) for poultry use as a spray, wash or dip its application is feasible in the poultry industry
We investigated the population recovered from aerobic plate count petrifilm (APCs) and Campylobacter as well as Salmonella prevalence along with general chicken processing steps by examining samples taken at different stages of the first manufacturing process
Summary
Peracetic acid (PAA), a mixture of acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide, has been used as an antimicrobial in the food and poultry industries since PAA rapidly decomposes to acetic acid, oxygen, and water without formation of toxic residues, it can be applied (in water solution), and it is economical due to its relatively low cost[17]. To improve the microbiological safety of chicken products, more information is needed on how carcass bacterial associated communities are altered during processing and which poultry-associated bacteria (both beneficial and harmful) are reduced or retained during the application of processing by steps or treatments. We investigated the population recovered from aerobic plate count petrifilm (APCs) and Campylobacter as well as Salmonella prevalence along with general chicken processing steps by examining samples taken at different stages of the first manufacturing process. Antimicrobial treatments at four different locations using PAA and Amplon (Amplon spray after depilation step, on-line reprocessing with Amplon, post-chilling with PAA, and post-chilling with Amplon) were applied during chicken processing and their antimicrobial activities against APCs, Campylobacter, and Salmonella were evaluated from chicken carcass rinsate samples. An Illumina MiSeq was utilized to perform microbiome sequencing on chicken carcass rinsates but of all colonies present on 3M APC petrifilm and Campylobacter selective media in parallel with the rinsate samples to identify recovered colony microbiota via sequencing and assess how traditional plating matched the microbial composition of the rinsates
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