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Relationship Between Aerosolized Microbial Load and Contamination of Fully Cooked Then Frozen Meat Products
Author(s) -
HELMARCHER A. A.,
KERTH C. R.,
JONES W. R.,
MCCASKEY T. A.,
CONNER D. E.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.2004.tb17870.x
Subject(s) - contamination , food science , aerosolization , cooked meat , chemistry , environmental science , biology , ecology , inhalation , anatomy
The relationship between microbial loads in air and contamination of fully cooked meat products was investigated in a commercial processing facility. Air and product were sampled in the packaging area. No correlation existed between microbial counts from air samples and product samples ( P > 0.05; r < 0.06). Microbial counts from air samples ranged from 0.30 to 2.54 log10 colony‐forming units (CFU)/500 L and from 0.30 to 3.78 log10 CFU/g in the product samples. These data suggest that no direct relationship exists between microbial air quality and product contamination, but other environmental conditions may account for up to 1/5 of the variation in air contamination and 1/3 of the variation in product contamination.