Evaluation of microbial contamination of different pork carcass areas through culture-dependent and independent methods in small-scale slaughterhouses.

Evaluation of microbial contamination of different pork carcass areas through culture-dependent and independent methods in small-scale slaughterhouses. Int J Food Microbiol. 2020 Oct 08;336:108902 Authors: Peruzy MF, Houf K, Joossens M, Yu Z, Proroga YTR, Murru N Abstract Routine evaluation of the slaughter process is performed by the enumeration of the aerobic colony count, Enterobacteriaceae and Salmonella spp. on the carcass through destructive or non-destructive methods. With non-destructive methods, bacteria are counted from a minimum area of 100 cm2 in different sampling sites on the pork carcasses, and the results of these investigated areas are pooled to one value for the complete carcass evaluation (a total of 400 cm2). However, the composition of the bacterial community present on the different sampling areas remains unknown. The aim of the study was to characterize the microbial population present on four areas (ham, back, jowl and belly) of eight pork carcasses belonging to two different slaughterhouses through culture-dependent (Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry MALDI-TOF MS, combined with 16S rRNA gene sequencing) and complementary culture-independent (16S rRNA amplicon sequencing) methods. The presence of Salmonella spp. and Y. enterocolitica was additionally assessed. Using MALDI-TOF MS, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, and Escherichia coli were found to dominate the bacterial ...
Source: International Journal of Food Microbiology - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Int J Food Microbiol Source Type: research