Bacterial counts associated with poultry processing at different sampling times.

ABSTRACT

Aerobic plate counts, Enterobacteriaceae counts and Pseudomonas counts were performed on neck skin samples from six processing steps in a poultry abattoir at three different sampling times. Sampling time 1 was shortly after start-up of processing operations, time 2 after a tea break which was preceded by a cold water rinse-down of equipment surfaces, and time 3 before shut-down. No significant differences (P > 0.05) in microbial numbers of neck skin samples were observed between the three sampling times at the six sampling sites. At this particular processing plant, therefore, sampling at any time of the processing shift would thus not lead to significantly different bacterial counts of neck skins. The lowest aerobic plate counts, over all three sampling times, were obtained for neck skins sampled after spray washing, and the highest for neck skins sampled after packaging. This indicated the efficacy of the washing step in reducing microbial contamination but subsequent re-contamination of carcasses. Despite the Pseudomonas counts of neck skins being lower than the Enterobacteriaceae counts at the beginning of processing, packaging of carcasses resulted in Pseudomonas counts that were higher than the Enterobacteriaceae counts.