EFFECT OF BROILER CARCASS WASHING ON FECAL CONTAMINANT IMAGING

Abstract

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service has mandated that there be no fecal contaminants on poultry carcasses when the carcasses enter the chiller tank because of a risk of cross-contamination of pathogens. Since the inception of the hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) mandate, the poultry industry has increased the amount of water used per bird to ensure compliance with this mandate. This article reports on research to develop a method to identify fecal contaminants on poultry carcasses with a hyperspectral imaging system and to evaluate the effectiveness of this system for detecting contaminant residues and stains on mechanically washed carcasses. The imaging system easily identified fecal contaminants (98%) prior to mechanical washing but also incorrectly identified 196 carcass features that were not contaminants (false positives). However, almost half of the false positives came from only five carcasses. Results confirm the feasibility of using such a system for detecting fecal contaminants. For washed carcasses, the hyperspectral imaging system significantly detected about 45% of the cecal stains and 34% of the duodenum stains. Contaminant wash times of 8 or 12 s did not significantly affect either the observation of visible stains or the hyperspectral detection of those stains. However, the hyperspectral imaging system detected significantly more cecal stains at the longer contaminant exposure time of 12 min than at the shorter exposure time of 2 min. For hyperspectral contaminant detection, no other contaminant exposure-time effects were observed. Based on the interpretation of the FSIS regulation of fecal contaminants, fecal stains are not normally considered contaminants. Therefore, to comply with the FSIS regulation while not adversely affecting processing plants’ production, the hyperspectral imaging system should be modified to prevent detection of fecal stains.