ATP-Bioluminescence and Conventional Microbiology for Hygiene Evaluation of Cutting Room Surfaces in Poultry Slaughterhouse.

Abstract

Background: The hygiene procedures in poultry slaughterhouses consist in the use of hot water, detergent and sanitizing, configuring Sanitation Standard Operating Procedure (SSOP). These actions control contamination in food processing environments, especially by pathogenic microorganisms, which cause diseases with impact on public health and economic losses. The microbiological control of aerobic mesophiles, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, are used as indicators of contamination. The hygienic-sanitary conditions on the surfaces of the poultry slaughterhouse cuttting room were evaluated, before and after cleaning and sanitizing procedures.Materials, Methods & Results: Conventional microbiology (Rodac plates and sponge for quantification of aerobic mesophiles, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli) and ATP-Bioluminescence were used to analyze the action of hot water and the active principles peracetic acid, quaternary ammonia and biguanide in the standard pre-operational hygiene procedure in the cutting room of the poultry slaughterhouse under Federal Inspection with slaughter capacity of more than 20.000 birds/h. The evaluations were performed on three lines of chicken thigh cuts at the same time and in a completely randomized manner on stainless steel surfaces, polyurethane belts and polyethylene boards. Samples were made in four replicates at the three surface totaling 108 assay for each microorganism. The samples were collected at the end of the cuttingprocess, before and after washing the surfaces with hot water (between 45 and 50ºC) and after sanitization with 0.5% peracetic acid, 2% quaternary ammonia and 1% biguanide. The ATP-Bioluminescence method detected organic matter at all collected points and Rodac plates allowed a better recovery of microorganisms than sponges for quantification of aerobic mesophiles, E. coli and S. aureus. There was a reduction of contamination after the action of hot water and, after using quaternary ammonia and peracetic acid, there was no isolation of E. coli and S. aureus on all evaluated surfaces.Discussion: The use of different methods of analysis for monitoring the hygiene and sanitary status of contact surfaces with chicken cuts allows greater flexibility in relation to hygiene control. The use of the bioluminescent ATP detection method allows detecting in seconds extremely low levels of contamination, allowing a quick determination of the cleaning efficiency on the surfaces and evaluation of the hygiene programs. Conventional microbiology methods, on the other hand, provideindicators of contamination by different microorganisms on food contact surfaces. Both are applicable in SSOP monitoring programs and sanitary conditions of the contact surfaces in food producing establishments. The significant reduction of microorganisms on surfaces after cleaning, found in this study, demonstrates the importance of operational hygiene inthe maintenance of microbial contamination below the recommended limits, and to reconcile the ATP-Bioluminescence methodologies and Rodac plates can bring benefits to the control of this contamination, and the use of ATP-bioluminescence makes possible taking immediate corrective measures after the evaluation of sanitation procedures.Keywords: ATP-Bioluminescence, Rodac plates, Escherichia coli, mesophiles, Staphylococcus aureus.

Effect of Peracetic Acid Solutions and Lactic Acid on Microorganisms in On-Line Reprocessing Systems for Chicken Slaughter Plants

“…The literature is inconstant in describing changes in bacterial load on carcasses along the slaughter line: studies show both increasing and decreasing numbers of different microorganisms, such as Campylobacter, E. coli, and Salmonella on the carcasses during the slaughtering and cutting process without sanitation in place. Interherd crosscontaminations by Campylobacter and Salmonella, for example, are also described (1,3,17,18,21,22,25,26).…”

“…The results of our study demonstrate significant (P , 0.05) reductions (up to 4.4 log CFU mL À1 ) of TAB and Enterobacteriaceae on almost all sampled contact surfaces in the slaughterhouse, due to continuously spraying 0.021% PAA on the surfaces. Rodrigues et al (22) have reported reduction rates of TAB of 3.8 log CFU per area unit on surfaces in a poultry slaughterhouse in a sanitation standard operating procedure at the end of a processing day. This procedure included a hot water treatment, followed by application of a 0.075% PAA solution, with 15-min reaction time after a single spraying treatment (22).…”

“…Rodrigues et al (22) have reported reduction rates of TAB of 3.8 log CFU per area unit on surfaces in a poultry slaughterhouse in a sanitation standard operating procedure at the end of a processing day. This procedure included a hot water treatment, followed by application of a 0.075% PAA solution, with 15-min reaction time after a single spraying treatment (22). Comparing the number of TAB on days with sanitizer treatment to the bacterial number on days with no treatment, the results of the present study are similar.…”

Cleaning and disinfection programmes in food establishments: a literature review on verification procedures

“…For microbiological testing, several studies (Costa et al 2006;Tebbutt et al 2007;Faour-Klingbeil et al 2016;Abd El-Razik et al 2017;Brasil et al 2017;Losito et al 2017;Khalid et al 2019) used the swab technique, whereas other authors used contact sampling methods, such as Rodac plates (Caputo et al 2011;Garayoa et al 2014;Garayoa et al 2016;Garayoa et al 2017), dipslide and contact agar plate (Lehto et al 2011;Carrascosa et al 2012;Nasopoulou et al 2012). The sponge method was used by Henriques et al (2014), Rodrigues et al (2018) and Gu et al (2019). For sampling, Aarnisalo et al (2006) justified the choice of Petrifilm because they are flexible, easy to use and have good repeatability and reproducibility.…”

“…Otherwise, the highest limit (100 CFU per cm 2 ) was used in studies carried out in slaughterhouse (Brasil et al 2017), frozen meat patties (Khalid et al 2019), fruit packaging line (Abd El-Razik et al 2017) and catering system (Petruzzelli et al 2018). Another commonly used reference limit was 10 CFU per cm 2 (Tebbutt et al 2007;Visan and Segal 2011;Osimani et al 2014;Rodrigues et al 2018). Some authors classified the data into three categories.…”