Effectiveness of a steam-vacuum sanitizer for reducing Escherichia coli O157:H7 inoculated to beef carcass surface tissue

Abstract
A steam-vacuum sanitizer reduced aerobic plate counts associated with bovine faecal contamination from 5.5 log10 cfu cm−2 to 3.0 ± 0.21 log10 cfu cm−2 on beef carcass short plates. The same beef carcass short plates inoculated wiht 7.6 ± 0.09 log10 cfu cm−2Escherichia coli O157: H7 in faeces, yielded an average residual level of E. coli O157: H7 of 2.1 ± 0.21 log10 cfu cm−2 after steam-vacuum treatments. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a steam-vacuum sanitizer for removing E. coli O157: H7 from beef carcasses.