Effects of Spray-Cooling Processes on the Microbiological Conditions of Decontaminated Beef Carcasses
- 1 July 2003
- journal article
- Published by Elsevier in Journal of Food Protection
- Vol. 66 (7) , 1247-1252
- https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028x-66.7.1247
Abstract
Spray processes for cooling decontaminated carcasses were examined at four beef packing plants. Temperature histories were collected from deep leg sites on 25 carcasses and from randomly selected sites on the surfaces of a further 25 carcasses selected at random from carcasses undergoing cooling at each plant. Carcass cooling rates were similar at all four plants. Proliferation values calculated from surface temperature histories indicated similar increases of ≤2 log units in the numbers of pseudomonads on carcasses at all plants and increases of 0.5 log units in the numbers of Escherichia coli on carcasses at plants A and B and plants C and D, respectively. The numbers of aerobes recovered from carcasses after cooling were about 1 log unit larger than the numbers recovered from carcasses before cooling at plants A, B, and C but >1.5 log units larger at plant D. These increases in numbers of aerobes were in agreement with the estimated proliferations of pseudomonads. The larger increase in the number of aerobes on carcasses at plant D may be attributable to carcasses not being pasteurized at that plant, while carcasses were pasteurized at all of the other plants. The numbers of E. coli recovered from carcasses after cooling at plants B, C, and D were also in agreement with the increases calculated from surface temperature histories. However, numbers of E. coli declined by about 1 log unit during carcass cooling at plant A. This decline may have been due to death occurring during chilling for some E. coli cells that were injured rather than killed by pasteurization with sprayed hot water at plant A, whereas pasteurization with steam at plants B and C seemingly left few injured E. coli cells. The growth of bacteria on decontaminated carcasses during spray cooling at the four plants was apparently constrained by temperature alone.Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Microbiological and organoleptic qualities of vacuum-packaged ground beef prepared from pasteurized manufacturing beefInternational Journal of Food Microbiology, 2002
- HACCP in primary processing: red meatPublished by Elsevier ,2000
- Evaluation of the hygienic performances of the processes for beef carcass dressing at 10 packing plantsJournal of Applied Microbiology, 1998
- Assessment of the hygienic performances of two beef carcass cooling processes from product temperature history data or enumeration of bacteria on carcass surfacesFood Microbiology, 1997
- New and Established Carcass Decontamination Procedures Commonly Used in the Beef-Processing IndustryJournal of Food Protection, 1997
- Tenderness of meat, poultry and fishPublished by Springer Nature ,1994
- Effect of Spray-Chilling on the Quality, Bacteriology and Case Life of Aged Carcasses and Vacuum Packaged BeefCanadian Institute of Food Science and Technology Journal, 1990
- Theoretical analysis of two hot water cabinet systems for decontamination of sides of beefInternational Journal of Food Science & Technology, 1989
- Process design data for beef chillingInternational Journal of Refrigeration, 1989
- The Control of Microbial Spoilage in Fresh MeatsPublished by Springer Nature ,1986