HOT-BONING AND ACID DECONTAMINATION - A TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES .1. HOT-BONING VS COLD-BONING - MICROBIOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC-ASPECTS

In order to compare microbial contamination along the cold chain in th e working conditions of a tropical country Standard Plate Counts, ente robacteriaceae, pseudomonaceae, group D streptococci, yeast and mould counts were carried out. Highly significant differences appear between modern vs. traditional slaughtering and chilling systems (P < 0.01). The differences before and after initial cooling (20 h) of forequarter s (> 1 log CFU/cm2) and the increase of 2 to 4 log SPC/cm2 at the cont acting areas between quarters are explained by the slow initial chilli ng rates (T-degrees, R.H.%) in the small chilling rooms. The deep leg temperature of the forequarters is higher than 7-degrees-C after chill ing due to the heavy loads and the low air velocity. The slow deboning rate and the high ambient temperature in the deboning rooms (+/- 25-d egrees-C) result in an important meat temperature increase during the cold-boning to about 20-degrees-C: the conventional procedure applied in Lubumbashi is therefore more a "semi-hot boning" process. As a cons equence, it appears that the cold-boned beef has very high microbial l oads. 74.6%, 36.6% and 48.6% of the meat samples during a 3-year surve y with more than 7.01 log SPC/cm2. The boning time for cold-boning and hot-boning was similar (29'44" vs. 29'31" for a forequarter) and the weight losses during chilling (+/- 1.9%) are compensated for by an inf erior meat yield in hot-boning (70.7% vs. 72.7%). From this study, it can be concluded that an accelerated boning system such as "hot-boning " might be an alternative to the conventional cold processing in devel oping countries.