The effects of residual blood of carcasses on the microbiological quality of poultry

Abstract

To prove the residual blood factors that are responsible for high contamination of carcasses, this study was conducted to compare the microbial level in poultry both perfectly and imperfectly bled. At 3°C storage temperature, the average number of bacteria of perfectly bled poultry was 7.05 × 10² ufc/g which was significantly (P≤ 0.05) lower than the average number of bacteria of imperfectly bled poultry (1 .78 × 10⁴ ufc/g). At 7°C storage temperature, the average number of bacteria of perfectly bled poultry was 6 .18 × 10³ ufc/g which was significantly (P≤ 0.05) lower than the average number of bacteria of imperfectly bled poultry (3.60 × 10⁴ ufc/g). The meat samples were taken from the chest and thigh to reflect the heterogeneity of the contamination. The rise in the storage temperature increased the bacteria in the two types of poultry; but the number of bacteria of perfectly bled poultry was still minimal. The residues of blood increased the degree of contamination of carcasses. It was found out that there were effects of season on the results of 80 samples from chicken carcasses (n = 80; 40 were used in the winter and 40 in the summer).

Keywords: Residual blood, total aerobic mesophilic flora (TAMF), perfectly bled poultry, imperfectly bled poultry