Meat safety legislation and its opportunities and hurdles for innovative approaches: A review.

Albert Einstein has been quoted "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them". Innovations are necessary to meet future challenges regarding sustainability, animal welfare, slaughter hygiene, meat safety and quality, not at least for optimal balance between these dimensions. The red meat safety legislation texts from Europe, New Zealand, USA, and global guidelines, were analysed for normative formulations ("how it is or should be done") that may create non-intentional hurdles to innovation and new technology. Detailed descriptions of slaughtering techniques and meat processes may hinder innovative processing from being investigated and implemented. The identified problematic normative phrases typically either conserve conventional technologies or organisation of the work, prescribe solutions where no established method, objective criteria or limits exits, or put forward visions impossible to obtain. The Codex Alimentarius was found to have less normative formulations and more functional demands ("what to achieve") than the national and regional regulations. European, New Zealand's and US' legislation share many similarities and challenges, and they all reflect the prevailing processing methods. Consequences are briefly commented, and alternative objective functional demands suggested. Normative legislation texts provide familiar context easier to understand, but also make legislation voluminous. This review underlines the mutual dependency between risk-based legislation and conditional flexibility, and between functional demands and control activities targeted on measurable objective criteria. The legislation does not have to be either or. Objective normative phrases in legislation can function as a least common multiple if alternative methods are allowed on condition that they fulfil objective criteria. Context and practical advice should mainly come from textbooks, consultants, white papers and in Food Business Operator's own guidelines, among others.

Rapid detection of Campylobacter spp. in chickens before slaughter.

Campylobacter continues to be the number one cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in Europe. Poultry, and especially broiler chickens, is considered an important reservoir for Campylobacter spp. Poultry producers prioritize to identify and reduce the number of Campylobacter contaminated chicken flocks by tightening biosecurity and mitigation actions at slaughter. Campylobacter-positive flocks must therefore be identified as close to slaughter as possible, and rapid detection methods are needed. Here we evaluated the applicability, sensitivity, and specificity of four commercially available rapid methods to detect Campylobacter in naturally contaminated chicken cecal droppings on-farm before slaughter against an established qPCR method. The Biofire® FilmArray® Gastrointestinal Panel assay, the VIDAS Campylobacter assay, the Singlepath® Campylobacter test, and OptiGenes' Genie Campylobacter isothermal DNA amplification were assessed in a pilot-study. The OptiGenes' Genie Campylobacter isothermal DNA amplification was also tested under field conditions. The Biofire® FilmArray® showed superior sensitivity and specificity compared to the three other rapid tests but had a lower throughput and a higher cost. While the VIDAS Campylobacter, Singlepath® Campylobacter and the isothermal DNA amplification were affordable, their unsatisfactory sensitivity (10%-71%) left these unsuitable to monitor Campylobacter carriage in chickens. An additional finding of this study is that 38% of flocks positive for Campylobacter at slaughter became contaminated during the last week of rearing. Therefore, increased efforts to develop suitable methods to detect Campylobacter rapidly and reliably in chickens close to slaughter are needed.

Development and validation of a regression model for Listeria monocytogenes growth in roast beefs.

Food business operators are responsible for food safety and assessment of shelf lives for their ready-to-eat products. For assisting them, a customized software based on predictive models, ListWare, is being developed. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a predictive model for the growth of Listeria monocytogenes in sliced roast beef. A challenge study was performed comprising 51 different combinations of variables. The growth curves followed the Baranyi and Roberts model with no clear lag phase and specific growth rates in the range <0.005-0.110 hr-1. A linear regression model was developed based on 528 observations and had an adjusted R-square of 0.80. The significant predictors were storage temperature, sodium lactate, interactions between sodium acetate and temperature, and MAP packaging and temperature. The model was validated in four laboratories in three countries. For conditions where the model predicted up to + log 2 cfu/g Listeria concentration, the observed concentrations were true or below the predicted concentration in 90% of the cases. For the remaining 10%, the roast beef was coated with spices and therefore different from the others. The model will be implemented in ListWare web-application for calculation of "Listeria shelf life".

A comparison of two evisceration methods on hygienic quality in the pelvic area of sheep carcasses.

The aim was to compare the effects of two evisceration methods under operational conditions, on the pelvic hygiene of sheep carcasses. Method 1: rectum sealed with plastic bag and pushed through the pelvic cavity. Method 2: rectum cut, placed back inside and pulled out from the carcass. The 18 largest Norwegian sheep abattoirs participated. Sampling areas were i) 400cm2 inside the pelvic cavity (n=623), ii) 100cm2 outside the circum-anal incision (n=622). There were pooled samples by swabbing the same area of five carcasses, representing totally 3115 carcasses. Mean E. coli results from Method 1: -1.61logCFU/cm2 inside and -0.25logCFU/cm2 for the outside area. Results from Method 2: -1.56logCFU/cm2 inside and -0.42logCFU/cm2 outside. There were no significant differences between the two methods. Both evisceration methods can produce carcasses that are of practically identical high hygienic quality.

Enumeration of Escherichia coli in swab samples from pre- and post-chilled pork and lamb carcasses using 3M™ Petrifilm™ Select E. coli and Simplate® Coliforms/E. coli.

The aim of the study was to compare two analytical methods; 3M Petrifilm™ Select E. coli and SimPlate® Coliforms &E. coli, for detection and enumeration of E. coli using swab samples from naturally contaminated pork and lamb carcasses that were collected before and after chilling. Blast chilling was used for pork carcasses. Swab samples (n=180) were collected from 60 warm and 60 chilled pork carcasses, and 30 warm and 30 chilled lamb carcasses, and analysed in parallel. The concordance correlation coefficient between Petrifilm and SimPlate was 0.89 for pork and 0.81 for lamb carcasses. However, the correlation was higher for warm carcasses (0.90) than chilled carcasses (0.72). For chilled lamb carcasses, the correlation was only 0.50, and SimPlate gave slightly higher results than Petrifilm (P=0.09). Slower chilling gave slightly lesser agreement between methods than for blast chilling, however, both Petrifilm and SimPlate methodologies are suitable and recommended for use in small laboratories in abattoirs.

The significance of clean and dirty animals for bacterial dynamics along the beef chain.

This study investigated the bacterial dynamics along the beef chain for clean and dirty cattle in the slaughter and processing lines, using classic quantitative methods and molecular analyses. In addition, the Norwegian national guidelines for Good Hygiene Practices in Norway were evaluated. In these guidelines, cattle presented for slaughter are categorised according to hide cleanliness, resulting in separate processing lines for meat from very dirty animals and reduced prices to farmers. The study was conducted in two commercial abattoirs in Norway. Two groups were compared; 40 visually clean cattle and 40 visually dirty cattle presented for slaughter, with 20 from each group at each abattoir. The same animals were sampled at five sampling sites: hides, carcass surfaces after dehiding, just before chilling, after chilling, and meat trimmings. Meat trimmings were sampled in only one abattoir. Three hundred and sixty samples were collected by swabbing 100 cm(2) of the brisket area at the first four sampling sites, and sampling 200 g of meat trimmings at the fifth site. The results showed that the hides of dirty cattle had more Enterobacteriaceae and higher Aerobic Plate Counts (APC) than visually clean cattle (P<0.05), however there was no significant difference for Escherichia coli. For the other sampling sites, there were no differences between the dirty and the clean group. An effect of chilling/drying of the carcass surfaces was demonstrated by the significant reduction in the number of carcasses on which E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae were detected; from 11% and 39% before chilling to 1% and 16% after chilling, respectively. Enterobacteriaceae and E. coli were detected in only three and one of the meat trimming samples, respectively. Amplification and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene from 643 Enterobacteriaceae colonies derived from 107 samples demonstrated that Escherichia/Shigella were dominant within this family on the hides. However, after dehiding, after grading, and after chilling, the genera Citrobacter and Enterobacter dominated. The meat trimmings were dominated by the genera Kluyvera, Hafnia, and unclassified Enterobacteriaceae. The relative proportions of Escherichia/Shigella were higher for dirty animals than for clean animals, and were higher on hides than from sampling sites further down the chain (P<0.05). The minor differences in contamination on carcass surfaces and meat trimmings between clean and dirty cattle indicate that separate processing lines in Norwegian abattoirs seem to be unnecessary.

Effects of hygienic treatments during slaughtering on microbial dynamics and contamination of sheep meat.

The aims of this study were to investigate bacterial dynamics in the sheep meat chain, from fleece to meat trimmings, using both quantitative and qualitative analyses, and to study the effects on microbial load associated with the hygienic interventions of: i) shearing sheep immediately before slaughter, ii) manual steam vacuum pasteurisation, iii) hot water pasteurisation of carcasses, followed by iv) chilling. A further aim was to provide evidence to determine whether or not unshorn sheep should be handled in a processing line separate from that of shorn sheep in Norwegian abattoirs. A total of 176 surface swab samples were collected from three sites along the value chain: i) on fleeces, ii) on carcasses at the end of the slaughter line, and iii) on carcasses after chilling for 24h, and 32 samples were collected from meat trimmings. The results showed that Aerobic Plate Counts (APC) were lower for the shorn group compared to the unshorn group, both on carcasses before chilling and after chilling (difference of 0.8 and 0.9logCFU/1000cm(2) (p≤0.05), respectively) and in meat trimmings (difference of 0.5logCFU/g (p≤0.05)). Hygienic treatments were used on carcasses derived from unshorn sheep, and steam vacuum treatment reduced Escherichia coli, Enterobacteriaceae, and APC before chilling by 1.2, 1.0, and 0.6logCFU/1000cm(2) (p≤0.05), respectively, and hot water pasteurisation, in addition to chilling, reduced E. coli, Enterobacteriaceae, and APC by 0.7, 1.0, and 0.9logCFU/1000cm(2) (p≤0.05), respectively, compared with untreated carcasses. The effect of chilling was shown by the significant reduction of number of carcasses where E. coli were detected; from 65% (13/20) of the shorn group before chilling to 35% (7/20) after chilling, and from 90% (36/40) to 45% (9/20) of the unshorn group. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene derived from 316 colonies of Enterobacteriaceae showed a tendency for the relative proportion of the genus Escherichia/Shigella, compared with other genera within Enterobacteriaceae, to be greater for unshorn, untreated sheep than from the other groups at the sampling locations along the meat chain. The study showed that steam vacuum and hot water pasteurisation reduced the contamination of carcasses derived from unshorn sheep, down to the level of the shorn group, and thus can replace the separate processing line for unshorn sheep. Indeed, the low microbial contamination in meat trimmings for all groups indicates that the separate processing line is unnecessary.

Effects of shearing and fleece cleanliness on microbiological contamination of lamb carcasses.

The meat industry in Norway has developed national guidelines for Good Hygiene Practices for slaughtering and skinning, based on categorisation of animals. These include shearing sheep and lambs in the abattoirs immediately before slaughter. The aim of this study was to investigate microbiological carcass contamination associated with: (i) different shearing regimes; (ii) fleece cleanliness; and (iii) the slaughter process. In addition, the efficacy of the national guidelines in reducing microbial contamination was evaluated. A total of 280 swab samples were collected from the brisket areas (100 cm(2)) of 140 naturally contaminated lamb carcasses in a commercial abattoir. Half the samples were collected at skinning of brisket areas at the start of the slaughter-line and half of them were collected at the end of slaughter-line, just before chilling. The lambs were divided into four groups (n=35) according to the duration of the period between shearing and slaughter: (i) 0 days (shorn at the abattoir immediately before slaughter); (ii) three days; (iii) seven days; and (iv) not shorn. Mean log colony forming units (CFU) per 100 cm(2) at skinning were 5.78 and 6.95 for aerobic plate count (APC) (P<0.05), 1.65 and 2.78 for Escherichia coli (P<0.05) for shorn and unshorn lambs, respectively. For shorn lambs, divided according to the period between shearing and slaughter, the mean log CFU per 100 cm(2) were 5.45, 5.75, 6.12 (APC) and 1.77, 1.46, 1.71 (E. coli) for the 0-days, 3-days and 7-days groups, respectively (P<0.05 for the difference between 0- and 7-days groups in APC results). A four-category scale (0-3) was used for assessing fleece cleanliness before skinning. Visually clean lambs (score '0') had lower levels of APC on the carcass surfaces than those categorised as dirty (score '2-3') (P<0.05). The carcasses at the end of the slaughter-line had lower levels of APC than they had at skinning. However, the statistical significant reduction of E. coli on carcass surfaces at skinning point for shorn lambs, were impaired and no longer significantly different from the unshorn group at the end of the slaughter-line. The increased E. coli level at the end of the slaughter-line might be explained by weaknesses related to slaughter hygiene in particular suboptimal evisceration in the abattoir which was used as a basis for our trial, and thus the national guidelines concerning shearing had not the fully intended effect on reducing microbial carcass contamination.

Hot water surface pasteurisation of lamb carcasses: microbial effects and cost-benefit considerations.

Although hot water pasteurisation of carcasses is accepted as a general intervention in USA, this is not the case in Europe. The aims of this study were (i) to evaluate the microbiological effects of hot water pasteurisation of lamb carcasses, both after slaughtering and dressing and following subsequent chilling and storage; (ii) to discuss hot water pasteurisation from a public health and cost-benefit perspective; (iii) to discuss the benefits of hot water pasteurisation compared with use of separate meat processing streams for high-risk carcasses; (iv) to evaluate the use of recycled hot water in a hygienic context and in relation to EU regulations; and (v) to consider the technological and sensory aspects of hot water pasteurisation of lamb carcasses. Samples were collected from 420 naturally contaminated lamb carcasses, with 50% of the carcasses (n=210) subject to hot water pasteurisation at 82 °C for 8s immediately after slaughter. Surface swab samples from 4500 cm² areas on carcasses were collected at slaughter, after chilling for 24 h, and after chilling for five days. The microbial analyses included Escherichia coli, Enterobacteriaceae, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens and aerobic plate count (APC). A resuscitation step using Tryptone Soya Agar was included in the microbiological analyses. Hot water pasteurisation significantly reduced the levels of E. coli, Enterobacteriaceae, B. cereus and APC (all P<0.001). E. coli colony forming unit (CFU) reduction was 99.5%, corresponding to a reduction of 1.85 log CFU per carcass. E. coli was isolated from 66% of control carcasses and from 26% of pasteurised carcasses. After 24h storage, the reduction in E. coli was increased to 2.02 log, and after five days E. coli could not be isolated from the pasteurised carcasses. These results suggest that surface pasteurisation could be an important and efficient procedure (critical control point) for reducing generic E. coli and thereby shiga toxin-producing E. coli on carcasses, and thus the risk for disease among consumers. The recycled water had acceptable physical and chemical parameters and no spore-forming bacteria were detected. Although some carcass discolouration was observed, after 24h the colour was acceptable. Our data provide relevant input for some of the data gaps regarding hot water pasteurisation and indicate that replacing the expensive system of separate processing of high-risk carcasses with hot water surface pasteurisation should be considered as a serious option.

Evaluation of the SimPlate method for enumeration of Escherichia coli in swab samples from beef and lamb carcasses.

Abattoirs have to enumerate Escherichia coli on carcass surfaces as part of compulsory HACCP monitoring and they therefore need rapid and reliable methods. The objective of this study was to compare a conventional plating method with a faster, simpler method for detection and enumeration of E. coli in samples from naturally contaminated carcasses. The two methods were the conventional pour plate method of the Nordic Committee on Food Analysis; NMKL Method No. 125, and the enzymatic method of SimPlate Coliforms &E. coli. Materials were 588 cotton-cloth samples used for swabbing 100 cm(2) areas on four sites on cattle and lamb carcasses in three commercial abattoirs in Norway. E. coli was detected by at least one of the methods in 270 (46%) of the samples. Forty-five samples (8%) were positive only by SimPlate while 28 samples (5%) were positive only by NMKL125. Cohen's kappa value was 0.74 for detection/non-detection results, which showed a high level of agreement between the two methods. E. coli counts determined by the conventional NMKL125 method showed a high concordance correlation (ccc 0.80, slope 0.99) with most probable number (MPN) values obtained with SimPlate. SimPlate is a rapid and reliable method for detection and enumeration of E. coli and a suitable alternative method for use with swab samples from cattle and lamb carcasses.