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Assessment of the microbiological conditions of red‐meat carcasses from bacterial counts recovered by sampling via excision or swabbing with cotton wool
Author(s) -
Martínez Bernardo,
Celda María Felicidad,
Millán María Encarnación,
Espacio Aurora,
Cano Monserrat,
LópezMendoza María Carmen
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
international journal of food science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.831
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1365-2621
pISSN - 0950-5423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.2008.01895.x
Subject(s) - veterinary medicine , biology , plate count , zoology , total viable count , linear correlation , food science , mathematics , bacteria , medicine , statistics , genetics
Summary Samples from 240 carcasses were collected from four animal species (porcine, ovine, bovine and equine). Two samples were taken from each carcass, one using the excision method (EX) and the other the wet–dry swabbing method (SW). Eight areas from each carcass were sampled. Most of the samples obtained by SW revealed total aerobic viable counts (TVC) levels of between 3.1 and 4.0 log CFU cm −2 , while most of the values corresponding to excision were located between 4.1 and 5.0 log CFU cm −2 . Moreover, Enterobacteriaceae (EC) counts were only detected above 3.0 log CFU cm −2 in 0.85% of the carcasses when the samples were collected by swabbing, while the excision method revealed that 13.75% of the carcasses presented EC greater than 3.0 log CFU cm −2 . TVC and EC by EX revealed statistically significant differences compared to SW, while no significant linear relationship was found between carcass surface bacterial counts obtained by SW and EX.