MICROBIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF THE HANDS OF FOOD HANDLERS AND OF THE SANITIZER IN THE MEAT PROCESSING INDUSTRY

Abstract

The hygienic-sanitary quality of foods constitutes an essential factor for consumer food safety. Food is increasingly exposed to a series of dangers and opportunities for contamination by microorganisms due to inadequate handling practices during food processing. Most of the people involved with the handling of foods lack knowledge related to hygienic-sanitary care that should be taken. With the objective of verifying the microbiota of the handlers’ hands in a meat industry, the microbiological monitoring was conducted before and after the sanitation of the hands. The collections were conducted in the deboning and cold cut sectors, with 20% participation of the handlers in each sector. There was presence of thermotolerant coliforms, total coliforms and Staphylococcus aureus before and after the sanitation of hands in the deboning sector. In the cold cut sector, the presence of thermotolerant coliforms was only verified before the sanitation, however the total coliform group was detected before and after sanitation. There was no presence of S. aureus. There was no presence of Salmonella spp in any of the analyzed samples.