Effect of hot water spray on broiler carcasses for reduction of loosely attached, intermediately attached, and tightly attached pathogenic (Salmonella and Campylobacter) and mesophilic aerobic bacteria.

Chickens are known to harbor many bacteria, including pathogenic microorganisms such as Salmonella and Campylobacter. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of hot water spray (HWS, 71°C for 1 min) in reducing bacterial contamination of prechilled broiler carcasses. For each of 4 replications, skin samples from 5 broilers were collected at 3 processing stages: after bleeding (feathers removed manually), after evisceration (with/without HWS), and after water chilling. Broiler skin was quantitatively assessed for loosely attached (by rinsing the skin), intermediately attached (by stomaching the rinsed skin), and tightly attached (by grinding the rinsed/stomached skin) mesophilic aerobic bacteria (MAB) and Campylobacter as well as for the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter. Broiler skins possessed 6.4 to 6.6 log cfu/g, 3.8 to 4.1 log cfu/g, and 2.8 to 3.5 log cfu/g of MAB populations after bleeding, evisceration, and chilling, respectively. The HWS resulted in more than 1 log unit of reduction in MAB immediately after evisceration and immediately after chilling regardless of microbial sampling method. Compared with MAB, the contamination of Campylobacter was low (1.7 to 2.6 log cfu/g) after bleeding, but the level was not reduced throughout the processing steps regardless of HWS. The application of HWS reduced the prevalence of Salmonella after chilling, but not for Campylobacter except for loosely attached cells. After hot water exposure, a partially cooked appearance was seen on both broiler skin and skinless breast surface. More research is required to effectively eliminate pathogenic organisms during processing and suppress any recovery of bacteria regardless of attachment type after chilling.