Microbiological quality of Australian beef

A survey of the microbiological quality of beef carcasses and boneless beef produced in Australia was conducted during the period June to November 199 8. Sponge samples were collected from 1,275 carcasses, and meat samples wer e drilled from 990 cartons of frozen boneless beef. Carcass and boneless be ef samples were respectively collected from 21 and 27 establishments that c oncentrated on export and from 38 and 3 establishments supplying the Austra lian domestic market of which 31 were very small plants slaughtering no mor e than 150 cattle equivalents per week. The mean log total viable counts (T VCs) were 2.42/cm(2) and 2.52/g for carcasses and boneless meat, respective ly. Escherichia coil was detected on 10.3% of carcasses and 5.1% of boneles s beef samples and coagulase-positive staphylococci on 24.3% of carcasses a nd 17.5% of boneless beef. Salmonella was detected on 0.2% of carcasses and 0.1% of boneless beef and E. coil O157:H7 recovered from 0.1% of carcasses but not detected on 990 boneless beef samples. Mean log TVCs/cm(2) differe d significantly (P < 0.05) between establishment types. They were lower on carcasses from export establishments (2.20) compared with domestic (2.61) a nd very small plants (3.10). There were no significant differences in preva lence of Salmonella or E. coil O157:H7 between establishment types. Excisio n samples were taken from 670 carcasses to make comparisons with the first baseline study of Australian meat, carried out in 1993 to 1994. While there were differences in sampling and microbiological techniques between the tw o studies that require detailed consideration, there were small but signifi cant improvements in several microbiological criteria for carcasses and bon eless meat.