| Five experiments were designed and conducted to provide packers, producers, other members of the swine/pork industry and regulatory agencies with information about the microbiological status of pork carcasses and pork variety meats.;Results from experiment 1 demonstrated that Campylobacter jejuni /coli, with an incidence of 7.9%, was the most commonly found pathogen (of those tested) on pork carcasses in the cooler, followed by Listeria monocytogenes (5.0%), Salmonella spp. (4.6%) and Yersinia enterocolitica (0.9%).;The results of experiment 2 indicated that mean (log CFU/cm2) TCC and ECC did not differ (P > 0.05) between the 3-site sponge sampling protocol and the 2-site sponge sampling protocol. However, in the cooler, the 2-site sponge sampling protocol only detected Salmonella spp. at a rate of 2.1% which was less than half of the 4.6% incidence detected using the 3-site sponge sampling protocol.;Results of experiment 3 indicated that general microbiological contamination (APC) was relatively high, for most variety meats sampled. There were no positive samples of Y. enterocolitica detected on variety meat samples. Less than 1% of the samples were positive for C. jejuni/ coli, while 15% and 16% of the samples were positive for Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes, respectively.;Results from experiment 4 indicated that larger reductions in APC, TCC and ECC on pork variety meats were obtained using trisodium phosphate (12%), acetic acid (2%) and lactic acid (2%) decontamination interventions. Treatments such as hot water (75 to 80°C) or steam resulted in discoloration of red variety meat products due to high temperatures. The hydrogen peroxide (5%) treatment slightly discolored red variety meat products and produced a foam that was undesirable for working/packaging conditions.;Results from experiment 5 indicated that lactic acid (2%) immersion was the most successful and consistent decontamination intervention treatment for reducing Salmonella, L. monocytogenes and Y. enterocolitica counts on variety meats tested. |
