Effect of Sand and Shaking Duration on the Recovery of Aerobic Bacteria, Coliforms, and Escherichia coli from Prechill Broiler Whole Carcass Rinsates

Broilers entering a processing facility can be contaminated with bacteria internally, externally, or both, and additional contamination may occur during processing. Although processing generally reduces the bacterial load on a carcass, it does not eliminate all carcass bacterial contaminants. Processing plant personnel sample carcasses daily to determine overall carcass contamination using the whole carcass rinse procedure. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential benefit of adding sand to the whole carcass rinse and extending shaking (rinsing) duration on the recovery of bacteria from broiler carcasses. Eviscerated broiler carcasses were obtained from a commercial processing plant before the prechill final wash. Carcasses were rinsed in peptone or peptone with sand for 1 and 4 min. Rinsates were analyzed for aerobic plate count, coliforms, and Escherichia coli. Bacterial levels recovered from rinsates with sand were significantly higher than levels recovered from the peptone-only rinsates, but the increase in recovery was relatively small at 0.6 log10 cfu/mL of rinsate. There was no significant improvement in bacterial recovery when shaking duration was increased from 1 to 4 min for either rinse treatment.