title: Assessment of the Microbial Level for Livestock Products in Retail Meat Shops Implementing HACCP System.
abstract: This study aimed to examine the microbial contamination levels in livestock products at retail stores. Beef, pork, and chicken samples from raw materials and final products were obtained between January and December 2015. All homogenized meat samples (25 g) were tested for the aerobic plate count (APC), coliform count (CC), andEscherichia colicount (E. coli). The highest APCs in meat samples, by month, at retail shops were obtained in September, followed by July, May, and October (p<0.001). However, APC was the highest in summer and the lowest in winter (p<0.001). Average APCs for beef, pork, and chicken samples were 2.90, 3.19, and 3.79 Log CFU/g, respectively (p<0.05). A comparison between different months revealed that, CC levels in meat samples ranged from 0 to 1.13 CFU/g, and the highest CC was obtained in August (p<0.001). By season, the highest CC was found in the summer, followed by autumn, and spring (p<0.001). All meat samples were negative forE. coli. The average log10APC and CC for all samples was 3.10 and 0.37 Log CFU/g, respectively. Furthermore, there was a direct correlation between the season and coliform presence (p<0.001). There was also a positive correlation between the APC and CC (r = 0.517,p<0.001). The microbiological APCs for livestock products were in most cases below 106CFU/g.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Administration and Food Hygiene, Jinju Health College, Jinju 52655, Korea.
authors.forename: Dong-Gyun
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Yim
keywords: beef; chicken; microbial contamination; pork; retail shops