Salmonella spp. on pork at cutting plants and at the retail level and the influence of particular risk factors.

This article describes the contamination of pork with Salmonella spp. in cutting plants and butchers' shops in The Netherlands and quantifies the influence of several risk factors. When contaminated carcasses are being processed, the main risk factors regarding cross contamination are inapt cleaning and disinfection (OR 12.8), manipulation of contaminated materials as such (OR 4.7) and (re)contaminated surfaces (OR 4.4). However, in the current situation, where contaminated carcasses are constantly being brought into cutting lines, interim cleaning and disinfection of surfaces and utensils during breaks and at the end of the working day will most likely prevent not more than about 10% of all cross contamination that takes place during a working day. Thus, as long as contaminated carcasses are being processed, about 90% of the cross contamination that occurs in cutting plants is practically unavoidable. It can therefore also be concluded that under these circumstances the implementation of codes of good manufacturing practices (GMP) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)-inspired production methods will only be marginally effective in the control of Salmonella spp. cross contamination in cutting lines. The same is more or less true for the processing of contaminated cuts or carcasses by butchers in shops and supermarkets. Furthermore, in contrast to the situation in cutting plants, it may be that up to 10% of butcher's shops or kitchens of restaurants become colonized for several weeks or months with their own endemic 'house flora' of Salmonella spp., which are originally introduced via the purchased contaminated products of animal origin. Though there are no hard data to substantiate this, it can be suspected that these shops and restaurants represent the more badly managed, i.e. poorly cleaned and disinfected, enterprises. However, several analytical limitations hinder an exact determination of the prevalence of Salmonella spp. contaminated pork and an exact quantification the influence of risk factors. The diagnostic value (i.e. the sensitivity, specificity, precision and predictive value) of the combination of swabbing of carcasses and cuts and the usually employed culturing methods, in particular, is largely unknown, and there are indications that it may be seriously questioned. Without a more thorough knowledge about the diagnostic value of current and future methods of sampling and identification, it is impossible to provide for more accurate estimations of the prevalence of Salmonella positive carcasses and cuts. Based on the research data, the incidence of contaminated cuts and retail-ready pork can not be estimated more precise than as somewhere between 5-40%. When compensating for the discussed methodological flaws, it must be assumed that currently the true prevalence of contaminated primal cuts and retail-ready pork in butchers' shops is about 25-30%, and that of minced pork and pork sausages about 50-55%. Lastly it is concluded that if carcasses were Salmonella-free, consumers could in principle be provided with virtually Salmonella-free pork. It is therefore recommended that the EU allows for a decontamination step in slaughterhouses with a substance that is generally recognized as safe, provided that the producers strictly adhere to GMP-principles.