Effect of Time and Temperature of Commercial Continuous Chilling of Fryer Chickens on Carcass Temperatures, Weight, and Bacterial Counts

LOW bacterial counts on poultry at the ' beginning of storage are associated with increased carcass shelf-life (Ayres et al., 1950; Ogilvy and Ayres, 1951; May et al., 1961). High standards of sanitary practice will help ensure high product qual-ity during usual storage periods. During processing of ready-to-cook poul-try, bacterial counts may be significantly influenced by chilling. Investigating the effect of standard slush-ice tank chilling on bacterial counts, Fromm (1957) found a decrease in counts during chilling, Walker and Ayres (1956) found no significant change, and Kotula et al. (1962) found significant increase. Essary et al. (1958, 1960) found a significant inverse relation-ship between time of tank chilling and shelf-life. Kotula et al. (1962) and Brewer et al. (1961) found that bacterial counts may decrease during chilling in continuous in-line chillers. Continuous chilling is now the most common method in large commercial pro-cessing plants. In continuous chillers, the final temperature to which chickens are chilled is subject to considerable control. Carcass temperature is controlled by modi-fying rate, direction and temperature at which coolant is added, type of coolant, temperature and weight of carcasses enter-ing chiller, rate of movement of carcasses through the chiller, degree of agitation, length or number of sections of chiller, an