Fresh meat sectors operators manage the hygiene of their processes and production by referring to microbiological criteria which have changed very little for years. However, many of these operators observe a lack of adequacy between the thresholds of these criteria and the actual state of healthiness of the fresh meat products. As a result, online surveys and individual interviews were carried out with operators in the herbivore, pig and poultry meat sectors to identify the difficulties encountered regarding hygiene management using current criteria and improvement areas that could be investigated. These operators expressed difficulties in interpreting cases of non-compliant results in relation to general indicators (e.g. Total Mesophilic Aerobic Flora) and in implementing appropriate actions. The criteria considered significant for hygiene management are those which have a direct impact on product quality. They make it possible to identify the non-conformities causes and facilitate the implementation of preventive and corrective actions. The demand for stronger links between microbiological criteria and sensory evaluations is particularly marked in the herbivore and poultry meat sectors.
