Microbial Safety and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Concentrations of Intermediate Moisture Smoked African Giant Snail (Achatina achatina) Meat

Abstract

The study assessed microbial safety and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations (PAHs) of intermediate moisture smoked African giant snail (Achatina achatina) meat. Snail samples were smoked after treatments with 25% glycerol, 0.5% potassium sorbate and 3% NaCl. One hundred (100) smoked snail samples were used for the analysis. Four (4) samples were used for preliminary analysis with one sample for each infusion method. The 96 remaining samples were divided into four (4) groups of 24 samples per group based on the four infusion methods and each group was divided into six (6) batches of four (4) samples. Microbiological analyses were carried out on the smoked snail samples to determine the presence of pathogenic bacteria, Campylobacter jejuni (CJ), Listeria monocytogenes (LM), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT), Salmonella spp. (SP), Escherichia coli (EC), and Yersinia enterocolitica (YE) using standard methods and PAH concentrations were determined by using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrophotometric method. The results showed that there was presence LM, EC, and YE from the smoked snail samples. The sixteen different PAHs: Naphthalene (Nap), Acenaphthylene (Acp), Acenaphthene (Acn), 1,2-Benzanthracene, (1,2 BAnt), fluorene (Flu), Pyrene (Pyr), phenanthrene (Phe), anthracene (Ant), fluoranthene (Flr), benz [a] anthracene (B[a]A), chrysene (Chr), benzo [b] fluoranthene (B[b]F), benzo [k] fluoranthene (B[k]F), benzo [a] pyrene (B[a]P), Dibenzo[a,h]anthracene (DB[a,h]A) and benzo [ghi] perylene (B[ghi]P) were detected. The PAHs concentrations in the samples were very high and above maximum permissible level of 2.0 µg/kg for BaP. The concentrations of PAH4; 4PAHs (B[a]P + Chr + B[b]F + B[a]A) in all the samples despite curing were high and greater than the maximum acceptable level of 12 µg/kg stipulated by European Commission Regulation (EU) No 835/2011 of 19 August 2011 for B[a]P in grilled or smoked meat products.