title: The effectiveness of in-plant chlorination in poultry processing.
abstract: 1. Sampling carcasses after plucking or after the post-evisceration spray-wash showed that 10 or 20 ppm available chlorine in the processing-plant water supply caused little reduction in carcass contamination. 2. When 20 ppm chlorine was used in the water supply to parts of the processing-plant other than the mechanical immersion chilling system, counts of faecal and spoilage bacteria from carcasses were reduced approximately 10-fold after passage through the chilling system; bacterial carry-over of chlorine from the final spray-washer. 3. Artificial contamination of carcasses with a readily identifiable strain of Escherichia coli confirmed the occurrence of cross-contamination during plucking and evisceration; in-plant chlorination reduced neither the proportion of carasses contaminated nor the numbers of organisms transferred at these stages. 4. In most cases the chlorine-resistance of poultry spoilage pseudomonads was greater than that of E. coli; hence in-plant chlorination is to be recommended for processing-plant water supplies which carry such spoilage organisms.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002713:Chlorine / Q000032:analysis* / Q000494:pharmacology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005525:Food-Processing Industry; D011202:Poultry Products; D011549:Pseudomonas / Q000187:drug effects; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D002713:Chlorine