18D-33 |
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S. U. TRIVEDI, J. Chen, V, and A. E. Reynolds, Jr. Dept. of Food Science & Technology, Univ. of Georgia, 1109 Experiment St., Griffin, GA 30223 The small and very small meat processing facilities in the United States are in need of a pathogen reduction technology which would be effective, operational, and economical to implement. This study is aimed to investigate the feasibility of household steam and vacuum/steam cleaners in reducing pathogenic and spoilage bacterial populations on surfaces of pork skin contaminated with E.coli O157:H7. Pork skin surfaces were contaminated with a five strain mixture of E. coli O157:H7 at 107 or 105 cfu/ 10 cm2 area. The contaminated pork skin was treated by three commercial household cleaning systems for 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 sec, respectively. A sampling area of 5X2 cm2 was excised from each test specimen and transferred into a sampling bag with 10 ml of Maximum Recovery Diluent, which was subjected to stomaching at normal speed for 60 seconds. Microbiological analysis was performed to enumerate the populations of E. coli O157:H7, total plate counts, and thermoduric bacteria counts. To determine the population of heat-injured bacteria, enrichment procedure was employed. The application of steam and steam/vacuum yielded a reduction in populations of E. coli O157:H7 up to 7.38, 4.85, and 5.79 log cfu/10 cm2 (P<0.05) with a treatment time of 60, 180 and 180 sec, respectively at 107 cfu/ 10 cm2 inoculation level. Whereas, at 105 cfu/10 cm2 inoculation level the reduction was 5.7, 5.7, and 5.45 log cfu/ 10 cm2 (P<0.05) with a treatment time of 120, 120 and 180 sec, respectively. A similar trend was observed in the reduction of total plate counts and thermoduric bacteria counts at both inoculation levels. Significant differences were observed between different inoculation levels, treatment times, and type of steam and steam/vacuum systems used (P<0.05). The study infers that the commercial household cleaning systems could be effectively used by small and very small meat processing facilities as a part of HACCP system.
Session 18D, Food Microbiology: General
2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana |