Prevention of Contamination of Broiler Chicken Carcasses with Campylobacter During Water Cooling

Abstract

AbstractThe degree of C.jejuni bacterial carriers in poultry reaches 90%. In this regard, contaminated chicken meat is considered as the main source of food campylobacteriosis. The study of the nature of the contamination of the surface of carcasses with Campylobacter in the poultry slaughterhouse, washings from the feather cover and legs, as well as water from the heat treatment and cooling scalder showed that water cooling promotes cross-contamination of the surface of carcasses with Campylobacter: in the water of cooling scalders, C.jejuni and C.coli were found in 33.3%, C.lari in 16.7% of studies. In washes from the surface of carcasses after the cooling process, C.jejuni was found in 50%, C.coli in 66.7%, C.lari in 16.7% of cases. To study the disinfecting efficiency of PA solutions in relation to C.jejuni, water cooling of carcasses was simulated in laboratory conditions. The carcasses were cooled in tap water (control) and in 0.001, 0.03, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2% (with respect to peracetic acid) PA solutions. The surface of chicken carcasses was pre-contaminated with the C.jejuni test culture. It was found that the use of 0.03–0.05% PA solutions (by peracetic acid) for cooling carcasses ensures the prevention of microbial cross-contamination, a decrease in the number of mesophilic aerobic and facultative anaerobic microorganisms and C.jejuni on the surface of carcasses. Significant differences in the physicochemical parameters of meat, as well as the organoleptic assessment of the broth (transparency, smell) prepared from poultry meat and cooled in the usual way and in PA solutions (with the exception of the paler color of the carcass surface) have not been established.KeywordsSlaughterhouseCampylobacterPoultry carcassesPeracetic acidQualityPoultry meatSafety