Monitoring beef carcass surface microbial contamination with a luminescence-based bacterial phosphatase assay.
A commercially available microbial phosphatase test kit (Fast Contamination Indicator; FCI) was evaluated as a rapid method for estimating microbial contamination levels on beef carcass tissues. A set of actual beef carcass surface sample swabs (n = 70) was tested using the assay as a means to rapidly (10 min) monitor carcass swab sample microbial contamination. A regression equation was developed in experiment 1 and tested on an independent population. There was agreement between this assay and the conventional plating method for total aerobic mesophilic bacteria (r = 0.93). The predicted total mesophilic aerobic bacteria count generated from the fitted regression line (predicted log10 CFU/cm2 = 0.7505 x log10 FCI microbial phosphatase test values + 0.6726) showed a high correlation with actual aerobic mesophilic total counts (r = 0.88). The FCI test offers a simple and rapid method to estimate microbial contamination levels on beef carcasses.
Kang
Dong-Hyun
DH
US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Roman L. Hruska US Meat Animal Research Center, Nebraska 68933-0166, USA.
Siragusa
Gregory R
GR
D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002417:Cattle; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D005516:Food Microbiology; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D010744:Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases / Q000032:analysis*; D012044:Regression Analysis
D010744:Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases