Meat Salmonella

Cooked uncured meats Salmonella, Listeria, C. botulinum (Modified atmosphere packaging)... 

More recently, a range of other quality and safety issues have been recognised by consumers and now influence poultry meat and egg buying patterns and behaviour. Most importantly this includes (i) the routine use of antibiotics as growth promoters and curative medicines and the potential for development of transferable antibiotic resistance, (ii) risk associated with enteric pathogen (e.g. Salmonella and Campylobacter) and toxin (e.g. dioxin) contaminants of poultry products, (iii) the environmental impact of poultry production and (iv) the sensory and nutritional quality of eggs and poultry meat (Menzi et al., 1997 Hamm et al., 2002 Rodenburg et al., 2004 Horsted et al., 2005). 

Salmonella rods are present on the surfaces of eggs and may penetrate into eggs via shell pores. They are also found in poultry and milk, and may contaminate meat during jointing. Foodborne toxicoinfections caused by Salmonella rods, but not involved in typhus or paratyphus, are named salmonellosis. In 2001 in Poland, the morbidity rate reached 51.2 per 100,000 (19,788 cases) (Gonera,... 

A main finding was the detection in retail poultry of . jejuni cultured in 192 of 862 specimens examined, as compared with 30 for Salmonella. Other types of retail meat had negligible contamination by either bacterium. Similarly, 48% of the jejuni enteritis cases were estimated to originate in poultry and none in beef or pork. Only a few of the cases were hospitalized. There were no deaths. 

After aflatoxin contamination, perhaps the next most important factor that has a negative effect on human health and food quality is the presence of food borne bacteria. Several routes for reduction of the risk are currently under extensive investigation. One such means of risk reduction is the utilization of ionizing radiation treatments on meat food products. Ionizing radiation has been demonstrated to be an effective method to reduce or eliminate several species of food borne human pathogens such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria, Trichinella, and Yersinia Chapter 23). If proper processing conditions are used, it is possible to produce high quality, shelf-stable, commercially sterile muscle foods. 

L. Croci, E. Delibato, G. Volpe and G. Palleschi, A rapid electrochemical ELISA for the detection of Salmonella in meat samples, Anal. Lett., 34 (2001) 2597-2607. 

Humans have used fire for cooking since about 105 years ago. The presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in broiled foods such as beefsteak and broiled fish has been reported (1, 2). The presence of genotoxic substances in broiled foods other than typical carcinogenic hydrocarbons was detected after the development of Ames Salmonella/mammalian-microsome test (3). Charred parts of broiled fish and meat showed mutagenicity towards Salmonella typhirmcrium TA98, a fraraeshift mutant of histidine auxotroph, in the presence of S9 mix, a mixture of rat liver... 

Infections such as Salmonella or Campylobacter may not have marked effects on bird health, but when they occur in eggs or meat can present a risk for the human consumer. 

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