The role of microbiological testing in systems for assuring the safety of beef

The use of microbiological testing in systems for assuring the safety of be ef was considered at a meeting arranged by the International Livestock Educ ational Foundation as part of the International Livestock Congress, TX, USA , during February, 2000. The 11 invited participants from industry and gove rnment research organizations concurred in concluding that microbiological testing is necessary for the implementation and maintenance of effective Ha zard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems, which are the only me ans of assuring the microbiological safety of beef; that microbiological te sting for HACCP purposes must involve the enumeration of indicator organism s rather than the detection of pathogens; that the efficacy of process cont rol should be assessed against performance criteria and food safety objecti ves that refer to the numbers of indicator organisms in product; that sampl ing procedures should allow indicator organisms to be enumerated at very lo w numbers; and that food safety objectives and microbiological criteria are better related to variables, rather than attributes sampling plans. (C) 20 00 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.