Safety Of Poultry Products Research Articles

Sanitary/hygienic processing equipment design

Proper cleaning and effective sanitation is an essential component of processing poultry, as it contributes significantly to the prevention of product contamination with microorganisms that cause food-borne disease and spoilage. Rapid expansion of production volume, increased further-processing and introduction of diverse ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products, sophistication of the processing equipment, implementation of HACCP and microbial finished-product standards, and, more importantly, expensive product recalls have necessitated greater control over the cleaning and sanitation process.A sanitary process should effectively protect raw and/or cooked products from physical (i.e. metal, plastic, bone, packaging materials etc.), chemical (residues of cleaning and disinfection chemicals, lubricants, coolants etc.), and biological (food-borne pathogens and/or their toxins) hazards. In spite of this, many hazards continue to find their way into the processing environment and ultimately into the finished products. Microorganisms are naturally introduced into the poultry processing environments in high numbers with the live birds and, when the conditions are suitable, form growth niches by actively multiplying within the system.It is generally accepted that processing equipment should not be a direct or indirect source of microbial contamination. Many regulatory and advisory bodies have introduced hygienic design and processing guidelines. This presentation will review the recently introduced sanitary processing equipment design principles and equipment checklist by the American Meat Institute.A plant designed, equipped, operated and maintained with internationally accepted hygienic and sanitary standards will produce safe and wholesome poultry products for the consumer.

IDENTIFICATION AND ENUMERATION OF SALMONELLA ON SAMPLE SLIDES OF POULTRY CARCASSWASHWATER USING IMAGE ANALYSIS WITH FLUORESCENT MICROSCOPY

Rapid detection of bacteria on poultry carcasses is desirable for the poultry industry to enhance food safety of poultry products. This research focused on image analysis with fluorescent microscopy for identification and enumeration of Salmonella typhimurium on sample slides of poultry carcass wash water which were prepared using fluorescent antibodies and immuno-magnetic beads. The criteria of morphological and optical characteristics of S. typhimurium cells, including area, aspect ratio, diameter, major and minor axis, maximum and minimum radii, perimeter, radius ratio, length and width, and intensity, were developed. An algorithm that included channel extracting, median filtering, image sharpening, image dilation and erosion, image flattening, and watershed filtering was selected using Image-Pro® Plus software to analyze the acquired images. The algorithm was trained with 110 slide samples. The regression analysis showed that the relationship between the automatic image counting and the microbial plate counting was linear with a correlation coefficient of 0.88. The detection limit of this method was 1 ×104 cells/mL, and the time needed was less than 4 h.

Evaluation of poultry processing practices, related public health laws and diseases of chickens at slaughter: A pilot study in Kaduna state

Poultry processing procedures and environment are integral to the quality and safety of meat derived from poultry. The existing practices used in the slaughter and processing of poultry and the disposition of poultry workers towards poultry inspection in four major live bird markets in Kaduna were evaluated using structured questionnaires administered to 30 marketers, 51 processors, 19 marketers/processors and each market manager respectively. Background public health regulations related to poultry production and processing as provided within the Meat Law (1968), Food and Drug Act (1974) and Animal Diseases (Control) Act (1988) were also assessed for gaps that could compromise quality and safety of poultry products in Nigeria. The diseases detectable at postmortem inspection of 1000 poultry carcasses processed in these live bird markets were documented. Live bird market workers were all males mainly between 20-39 years of age and had secondary school education (64%). Majority (51%) consist of poultry processors, largely ignorant of public health laws. Up to 95% and 74% of the workers will welcome routine ante-mortem and post mortem inspection respectively. Lesions related to Newcastle disease had the highest frequency of occurrence (41.6%) amongst inspected birds. Existing laws have made provisions to ensure that animal production and processing are coordinated for the benefits and health of the general populace. Laws evaluated have gaps that could compromise various stages of quality assurance along the poultry value chain, lack specificity in terms of addressing specific issues of poultry hygiene and did not adequately empower the veterinary services to enforce measures that will ensure safe poultry products. Hence, the revised Animal Disease Control Edict and Meat Hygiene Act should be passed into law, Nigerian live poultry market workforce needs training on poultry processing precautionary public health measures, and the use of protective clothing should be made mandatory. Keywords: Inspection, Legislation, Poultry, Processing, Public health