ABSTRACT
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 176 Food safety concerns .............................................................................................................. 176
Role of poultry in foodborne disease ....................................................................................... 176 Regulatory issues ........................................................................................................................ 177
Raw poultry ............................................................................................................................ 177 Further processed and ready-to-eat (RTE) poultry products........................................... 178
Pathogenic microorganisms on processed poultry ................................................................ 179 Pathogens of concern ............................................................................................................. 179
Salmonella serotypes .......................................................................................................... 179 Campylobacter jejuni ........................................................................................................... 180 Listeria monocytogenes ........................................................................................................ 180 Clostridium perfringens ....................................................................................................... 180 Staphylococcus aureus ......................................................................................................... 181
Incidence of pathogens on processed poultry ........................................................................ 181 Effects of processing on pathogen load ................................................................................... 182
Live haul and transportation ................................................................................................ 182 Scalding .................................................................................................................................... 183
Defeathering ....................................................................................................................... 183 Evisceration ............................................................................................................................. 184 Crop removal .......................................................................................................................... 184 Washing ................................................................................................................................... 184 Immersion chilling ................................................................................................................. 185 Evaporative air chilling ......................................................................................................... 185 Processing after chilling ........................................................................................................ 185
Further processing ............................................................................................................. 186 Control of pathogens during processing ................................................................................. 186
General considerations .......................................................................................................... 186 GMPs-HACCP prerequisites .................................................................................................... 187
Premises and facilities ........................................................................................................... 188 Cleaning and sanitation......................................................................................................... 189 Inbound materials .................................................................................................................. 190 Equipment ............................................................................................................................... 190 Processing procedures ........................................................................................................... 191
Contamination of poultry carcasses by microorganisms is a natural result of the procedures that are necessary to produce retail products from live animals.1,2 This contamination of poultry products can occur during many of the processing areas, including initial and further processing, packaging, and storage, and the microorganisms can persist on these products until they are fully cooked before consumption. Live birds entering the processing plant contain heavy loads of bacteria that can then be disseminated throughout the plant and to other carcasses during processing. Most of the bacteria that are present on live birds are not pathogenic but are associated with meat spoilage. However, poultry can serve as reservoirs for a number of pathogenic bacteria types, including Salmonella serotypes, Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium perfringens, and Staphylococcus aureus.
