title: Comparing the effect of various contamination levels for salmonella in chicken meat preparations on the probability of illness in belgium.
abstract: At the urging of competent national authorities, a limited risk assessment on Salmonella in chicken meat preparations in Belgium was undertaken following a retail-to-table approach. The input distribution of Salmonella was based on surveillance data in Belgium. To analyze the relative impact of reducing the risk of salmonellosis associated with a decrease in the Salmonella contamination level, different distributions based on the actual situation but limiting the number of portions containing Salmonella at 1 CFU per 1, 10, and 25 g of meat were used in the quantitative microbial risk assessment model. The quantitative microbial risk assessment model also was run several times with a theoretical fixed input of Salmonella assuming all portions possessed the same fixed contamination level set at 1,000, 100, 10, and 1 CFU/g of meat and 1 CFU per 10, 25, 100, and 1,000 g of meat. With regard to the initial contamination level, the results indicate, both by the narrowing of the current distribution and by the fixed input, that especially the higher levels of contamination (>1 CFU/g) contribute to the increased risk for salmonellosis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. mieke.uyttendaele@ugent.be
authors.forename: Mieke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uyttendaele
authors.forename: Katleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baert
authors.forename: Koen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Grijspeerdt
authors.forename: Lieven
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: De Zutter
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Horion
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Devlieghere
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heyndrickx
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Debevere
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D002645:Chickens; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012475:Salmonella / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012478:Salmonella Food Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control