Effects of slaughtering operations on carcass contamination in an Irish pork production plant

This study has shown relatively high numbers of EB at several stages of a pork slaughtering         process. Singeing resulted in significant reductions of both TVC and EB; however this trend was offset by re-/cross- contamination in later stages of processing. Although TVC results at the end of the pork production process largely fell within EU limits, the overall results provide evidence that monitoring single predetermined CCPs in isolation from the rest of the procedure can mask possible deficiencies of a HACCP plan and thus, there is scope in establishing baseline criteria for each consecutive stage of the production. The study demonstrates the usefulness of monitoring more than one location within the process for each plant so that high risk stages can be identified, increased controls implemented and ongoing monitoring carried out to assess the effectiveness of additional interventions.

HACCP: Hazard analysis and critical control point; CCP: Critical control point; EU: European Union; MRD: Maximum recovery diluent.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

PW carried out the experimental work and drafted the manuscript. EG reviewed the scientific work, helped to draft the manuscript, and conducted the statistical analysis. AM supervised the experimental work and reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

The authors wish to acknowledge Dr Yu-Mei Chang for her technical help with the statistical         analysis.

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