Division of Animal and Nutritional Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
Department of Poultry Science, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA.
Poult Sci. 2024 May;103(5):103576. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103576. Epub 2024 Feb 20.
Chicken and chicken products have been associated with foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Escherichia coli (E. coli). Poultry comprises an important segment of the agricultural economy (75 million birds processed as of 2019) in West Virginia (WV). The risk of pathogens on processed chickens has risen with the increased popularity of mobile poultry processing units (MPPUs). This study evaluated the microbial safety of broilers processed in a MPPU in WV. This study assessed aerobic plate counts (APCs), E. coli counts and the presence/absence of Salmonella and Campylobacter on 96 broiler carcasses following each MPPU step of scalding, eviscerating, and chilling. Samples were either chilled in ice water only (W) or ice water with 5 ppm chlorine (CW). The highest number of bacteria recovered from carcasses were APCs (4.21 logCFU/mL) and E. coli (3.77 logCFU/mL; P = 0.02). A total reduction of 0.30 (P = 0.10) and 0.63 (P = 0.01) logCFU/mL for APCs and E. coli, respectively, occurred from chilling carcasses in CW. Overall, results show that E. coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter were significantly (P < 0.05) reduced from the initial scalding to the chilling step. However, Salmonella frequency doubled (15.63-34.38%) after the evisceration step, indicating that washing carcasses after evisceration may be a critical control point in preventing cross-contamination by Salmonella. Proper chilling is also an important microbial mitigation step in MPPU processing. Results indicate that Campylobacter was more resistant to chilling than Salmonella. Campylobacter was not completely inactivated until carcasses were chilled in CW, whereas W was sufficient to reduce Salmonella on carcasses. The results led to the conclusion that although 5 ppm chlorine (Cl) achieved more bacterial reductions than water alone, the reductions were not always significant (P > 0.05). Further MPPU studies are needed to verify more effective chilling and processing strategies.
鸡肉和鸡肉产品与食源性病原体有关，如沙门氏菌、弯曲杆菌和大肠杆菌（大肠杆菌）。家禽在西弗吉尼亚州（WV）的农业经济中占重要地位（截至 2019 年，加工了 7500 万只禽类）。随着移动家禽加工单元（MPPU）的日益普及，加工鸡肉中病原体的风险有所增加。本研究评估了在 WV 的 MPPU 中加工的肉鸡的微生物安全性。本研究评估了每批 MPPU 烫漂、去内脏和冷却步骤后，96 只肉鸡胴体的需氧平板计数（APC）、大肠杆菌计数以及沙门氏菌和弯曲杆菌的存在/不存在情况。样品要么仅在冰水中冷却（W），要么在冰水中加入 5 ppm 氯（CW）。从胴体中回收的细菌数量最多的是 APC（4.21 logCFU/mL）和大肠杆菌（3.77 logCFU/mL；P = 0.02）。用 CW 冷却胴体时，APC 和大肠杆菌分别减少了 0.30（P = 0.10）和 0.63（P = 0.01）logCFU/mL。总体而言，结果表明，大肠杆菌、沙门氏菌和弯曲杆菌在初始烫漂至冷却步骤中均显著（P < 0.05）减少。然而，去内脏后沙门氏菌的频率增加了一倍（15.63-34.38%），表明去内脏后清洗胴体可能是防止沙门氏菌交叉污染的关键控制点。适当的冷却也是 MPPU 加工中重要的微生物缓解步骤。结果表明，弯曲杆菌比沙门氏菌更能抵抗冷却。只有在 CW 中冷却胴体时，弯曲杆菌才会完全失活，而 W 足以减少胴体上的沙门氏菌。结果得出结论，尽管 5 ppm 氯（Cl）比单独用水实现了更多的细菌减少，但这些减少并不总是显著的（P > 0.05）。需要进一步的 MPPU 研究来验证更有效的冷却和加工策略。
