TY - JOUR
T1 - Processing practices contributing to Campylobacter contamination in Belgian chicken meat preparations
AU - Sampers, Imca
AU - Habib, Ihab
AU - Berkvens, Dirk
AU - Dumoulin, Ann
AU - Zutter, Lieven De
AU - Uyttendaele, Mieke
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a project fund from the Belgian Federal Public Services (FOD), Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment.
PY - 2008/12/10
Y1 - 2008/12/10
N2 - The aim of this study was to obtain insight into processing practices in the poultry sector contributing to the variability in Campylobacter contamination in Belgian chicken meat preparations. This was achieved by company profiling of eleven food business operators, in order to evaluate variation of processing management, in addition to statistical modelling of microbiological testing results for Campylobacter spp. contamination in 656 end product samples. Almost half (48%) of chicken meat preparation samples were positive for Campylobacter spp. Results revealed a statistically significant variation in Campylobacter contamination between 11 chicken meat producers across Belgium at both quantitative and qualitative detection levels. All producers provided Campylobacter-positive samples, but prevalence ranged from 9% up to 85% at single producer level. The presence or addition of skin during production of chicken meat preparations resulted in almost 2.2-fold increase in the probability of a sample being positive for Campylobacter, while chicken meat preparations made from frozen meat, or partly containing pre-frozen meat, had a significant (Odds Ratio = 0.41; CI 95% 0.18:0.98) lower probability of being positive for Campylobacter. However, the quantitative results indicated that the positive freezing effect on Campylobacter count was compromised by the presence and/or adding of skin.
AB - The aim of this study was to obtain insight into processing practices in the poultry sector contributing to the variability in Campylobacter contamination in Belgian chicken meat preparations. This was achieved by company profiling of eleven food business operators, in order to evaluate variation of processing management, in addition to statistical modelling of microbiological testing results for Campylobacter spp. contamination in 656 end product samples. Almost half (48%) of chicken meat preparation samples were positive for Campylobacter spp. Results revealed a statistically significant variation in Campylobacter contamination between 11 chicken meat producers across Belgium at both quantitative and qualitative detection levels. All producers provided Campylobacter-positive samples, but prevalence ranged from 9% up to 85% at single producer level. The presence or addition of skin during production of chicken meat preparations resulted in almost 2.2-fold increase in the probability of a sample being positive for Campylobacter, while chicken meat preparations made from frozen meat, or partly containing pre-frozen meat, had a significant (Odds Ratio = 0.41; CI 95% 0.18:0.98) lower probability of being positive for Campylobacter. However, the quantitative results indicated that the positive freezing effect on Campylobacter count was compromised by the presence and/or adding of skin.
KW - Campylobacter
KW - Chicken meat preparations
KW - Food
KW - Freezing
KW - Processing practices
KW - Skin
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2008.08.024
DO - 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2008.08.024
M3 - Article
C2 - 18947895
AN - SCOPUS:55649103454
SN - 0168-1605
VL - 128
SP - 297
EP - 303
JO - International Journal of Food Microbiology
JF - International Journal of Food Microbiology
IS - 2
ER -