Summary

Comparative investigations were carried out in two meat processing plants in order to determine the effect of disinfection on contact surfaces prior to and after the procedure on the basis of the total number of mesophilic microorganisms. It was found out that during production, the surfaces of most meat processing machines in the plant manufacturing freshly cooked and dried sausages from red and white meat were more contaminated than those in the plant manufacturing dry sausages from red meat. In both enterprises, the total number of mesophilic organisms was higher on the surface of me-chanical meat processing units than on the surface of thermal processing, drying and storage equip-ment, whereas the contamination of hands of cutter operators was almost identical. After the sanita-tion, mesophilic microflora was reduced to amounts, many times lower than normatively allowed. The effect of disinfection was more pronounced in the plant manufacturing freshly cooked and dried sau-sages from red and white meat, where the contamination of operational surfaces with mesophilic or-ganisms was higher. In both plants, the effect of disinfection was higher with regard to the equipment with initially more contaminated and smoother surfaces. Key words: disinfection, food safety, meat processing, total mesophilic microflor