Abstract
Poultry meat can be contaminated by different types of microorganisms during processing in processing plant. The microbiological quality of chicken carcasses and along with processing steps and environmental condition was analyzed in this study in an ISO 22000:2005 certified poultry processing plant of Kathmandu. Standard plate count method was applied for the enumeration and detection of total mesophilic bacteria, total coliform, total faecal coliform, Staphylococcus load along with selected pathogens like Salmonella spp., S. aureus, Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens, and Listeria spp. in chicken meat at four processing step (evisceration, final washing, frozen and market). It was observed that the level of microbial load decreased with subsequent processing phases in poultry processing plant where high level of bacteria were reduced during final washing and frozen phase. After processing poultry meat in an ISO 22000:2005 certified meat processing plant, total aerobic mesophilic count, total coliform count, total faecal coliform count, total Staphylococcus count were decreased from 6.92 to 4.45 log CFU/g, 3.49 to 2.19 log CFU/g, 2.41 to nil log CFU/g, and 3..43 to 1.99 log CFU/g respectively. Pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella spp., C. perfringens, and Listeria spp. were absent in chicken meat at the fourth processing step. Prevalence of E. coli was reduced from 37.4% to 10.2%, whereas S. aureus was decreased from 18.57% to 17.1%. It was concluded that the final washing and freezing steps were the Critical Control Point (CCP) to control microbial hazards in poultry processing phase.
Highlights
Chickens are domestic fowl having red fleshy wattles and combs on their heads raised for meat which are low acid food, rich in nutrients, phosphorous, other minerals, and B-complex vitamins (Gamble, 2015)
The results show that higher bacterial load were found in evisceration followed by final washing and frozen and least in market meat
As the result of the highest count was observed in evisceration and final washing stage,which was decreased during in final washing after evisceration, the number of total mesophilic bacterial count by more than 1 log cycle which is compatible with a report reported by Goksoy et al (2004) (James et al, 2000)
Summary
Chickens are domestic fowl having red fleshy wattles and combs on their heads raised for meat which are low acid food, rich in nutrients, phosphorous, other minerals, and B-complex vitamins (Gamble, 2015). The consumption of highly nutritious and safe poultry meat has increased worldwide. In 2013 the average consumption of chicken meat was 15 kg per person annually (GonzalezOrtiz et al, 2013). According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and ‘Nepal Commercial Poultry Survey 201415’, per capita chicken consumption for Nepali stands about 4.1 kg. According to the statistical information on Nepalese agriculture issued by Ministry of Agriculture. Development (MoAD), Nepal, the total poultry meat production of the country was 55,041 metric ton (MT) in the fiscal year 2015/2016. Government of Nepal had formulated and endorsed the Animal Slaughterhouse and Meat Inspection Act 1999 and regulation 2001 to ensure the quality of meat products. There is no meat and meat products standard, while more than 100 food standards have been issued by the government
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