Abstracts - Hygiène et sécurité sanitaire

Food safety is a crucial issue in cattle slaughterhouses and must be controlled from the slaughtering line onwards. As carcass contamination mainly originates from the animal's hide, this study experimented the application of an antibacterial gel to reduce the transfer of contamination from the hide to the carcass. Made from ethyl lauroyl arginate (LAE®), the gel's inhibitory potential on bacteria was tested in vitro in the laboratory and proved to be very promising for slaughterhouse trials, with a reduction in microbial concentration of up to 7 log CFU/ml. During in situ trials, microbial concentration was reduced by 1 log both on the hide and the carcass, which is similar to other decontamination methods currently employed. This result is encouraging, but further consideration on the application methodology is needed to improve the decontaminating effect of the gel on the animals' hides. Alongside the field trials, a metagenetic analysis was conducted to characterize the microbiota of the bovine hide and of the carcass. This analysis showed that both microbiotas exhibited a complex and similar diversity, thus confirming that the primary source of carcass contamination is the hide.

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.

From the metabolic mechanisms involved in muscle transformation to the action levers available to professionals to influence meat preservation, the compendium offers a unique overview of beef quality. To make the wealth of information available on meat quality, experts from the Institut de l'Elevage and the industry have worked together to produce a concise, educational compendium of knowledge for professionals upstream and downstream, teachers and anyone interested in the subject. Comprising 4 parts: presentation of processes - technological quality - organoleptic quality - methods, techniques and reference tables, the compendium contains 32 sheets dealing with the various aspects of beef quality, from rearing to distribution. It can be downloaded from the Institut de l'Elevage and Interbev websites.

This bibliographic review provides an overview of knowledge on farm animal digestive microbiota and on the effect of a delay between death and evisceration on meat microbiological quality. After the animal’s death, bacterial activity persists, resulting in the production of gas which dilates the digestive tract and increases the risk of carcass contamination during evisceration. In addition, some bacteria can migrate from the lumen of the digestive tract to the lymph by a natural mechanism of translocation. However, the majority of the few scientific studies on this topic show that after a delay ranging from 30 minutes to 5 hours, carcasses do not present a health risk as defined by European regulations. Further studies with omics approaches are needed to determine more clearly this possible health risk, especially in the context of on-farm slaughtering, which leads to an increase in the time between bleeding and evisceration.

Freezing fresh meats is standard practice and is part of the preservation and storage habits of most households but this technique makes a favorable ground for bacterial proliferation. This work is aimed at studying the effect of the thawing method on the microbiological quality of thawed camel meat compared to fresh meat. Four thigh muscle samples were taken to enumerate aerobic mesophilic flora, fecal coliform, Staphyloccus aureus and Salmonella of fresh meat (FM) and thawed meat. Four types of thawing were carried out: in the refrigerator (MR4 ° C), in the open air at room temperature (MA), in cold water (MCW) and in hot water (MHC). The results obtained showed good microbiological quality between the different thawing methods that did not exceed the standards