EVALUATION OF A STEAM PASTEURIZATION PROCESS IN A COMMERCIAL BEEF PROCESSING FACILITY

The effectiveness of a steam pasteurization process for reducing natur ally occurring bacterial populations on freshly slaughtered beef sides was evaluated in a large commercial facility. Over a period of 10 day s, 140 randomly chosen beef sides were microbiologically analyzed. Eac h side was sampled immediately before, immediately after, and 24 h aft er steam pasteurization treatment. Total aerobic bacteria (APC), Esche richia coli (generic), coliform, and Enterobacteriaceae populations we re enumerated, The process significantly (P less than or equal to 0.01 ) reduced mean APCs from 2.19 log CFU/cm(2) before treatment to 0.84 l og CFU/cm(2) immediately after and 0.94 log CFU/cm(2) 24 h after treat ment. Before pasteurization (8 s steam exposure), 16.4% of carcasses w ere positive for generic E. coli (level of 0.60 to 1.53 log CFU/cm(2)) , 37.9% were positive for coliforms (level of 0.60 to 2.26 log CFU/cm( 2)), and 46.4% were positive for Enterobacteriaceae (level of 0.60 to 2.25 log CFU/cm(2)). After pasteurization, 0% of carcasses were positi ve for E. coli, 1.4% were positive for coliforms (level of 0.60 to 1.5 3 log CFU/cm(2)), and 2.9% were positive for Enterobacteriaceae (level of 0.60 to 1.99 log CFU/cm(2)). Of the 140 carcasses evaluated, one c arcass was positive for Salmonella spp. before treatment (0.7% inciden ce rate); all carcasses were negative after steam treatment. This stud y indicates that steam pasteurization is very effective in a commercia l setting for reducing overall bacterial populations on freshly slaugh tered beef carcasses. The system may effectively serve as an important critical control point for HACCP systems at the slaughter phase of be ef processing. In conjunction with other antimicrobial interventions ( mandated by USDA to achieve zero tolerance standards for visible conta mination) and good manufacturing practices, this process can play an i mportant role in reducing the risk of pathogenic bacteria in raw meat and meat products.