Implementation of a validated HACCP system for the control of microbiological contamination of pig carcasses at a small abattoir

• Published in: Canadian veterinary journal Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 51 - 55
• Main Authors: Bryant, Jeffrey, Brereton, Donald A, Gill, Colin O
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada 01-01-2003
• Subjects: Abattoirs - standards; Animals; Bacteria - growth & development; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Colony Count, Microbial; Consumer Product Safety; Decision Trees; Escherichia coli; Food Contamination - prevention & control; Food Handling - methods; Food Inspection - methods; Food Inspection - standards; Food Microbiology; Meat - microbiology; Meat - standards; Proportional Hazards Models; Scientific; Swine
• ISSN: 0008-5286

To guide the implementation of a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system at a small abattoir, the microbiological conditions of pig carcasses at various stages of processing were assessed by enumerating total aerobes, coliforms, and Escherichia coli in samples collected from randomly selected sites on the carcasses. Those data indicated that carcasses were contaminated with bacteria mainly during dehairing and operations on the head. When carcasses were pasteurized after head removal, the numbers of total aerobes on dressed carcasses were reduced by about 1 order and the numbers of coliforms and E. coli were reduced by more than 2 orders of magnitude. Implementation of an HACCP system on the basis of the microbiological data gave cooled carcasses with mean numbers of total aerobes < 100/cm2, and mean numbers of coliforms and E. coli about 1/1000 cm2.