A National Survey of the Microbiological Quality of Beef Carcasses and Frozen Boneless Beef in Australia
- 1 May 2006
- journal article
- Published by Elsevier BV in Journal of Food Protection
- Vol. 69 (5), 1113-1117
- https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028x-69.5.1113
Abstract
The third national baseline microbiological survey of Australian beef carcasses and frozen boneless beef was conducted in 2004. Carcasses (n = 1,155) sampled at 27 slaughter establishments had a mean aerobic plate count (at 25°C) of 1.3 log CFU/cm2. Escherichia coli was isolated from 8.0% of the carcasses, with a mean count of −0.8 log CFU/cm2 for positive samples. On samples from 24 boning (fabrication) plants (n = 1,082), the mean aerobic plate count for frozen boneless beef was 1.3 log CFU/g, and the mean count for the 1.8% of samples with detectable E. coli was 1.5 log CFU/g. E. coli O157: H7 was isolated from 1 of 1,143 carcasses and from 0 of 1,082 boneless samples. Salmonella was isolated from 0 of 1,155 carcasses and from 1 of 1,082 samples of boneless product. No Campylobacter spp. were isolated from carcasses or boneless beef. Coagulase-positive staphylococci were isolated from 28.7% of beef carcasses and 20.3% of boneless beef samples, and positive samples had a mean count of 0.3 log CFU/cm2 and 0.8 log CFU/g, respectively.Keywords
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