Microbiological quality of pig carcasses in a slaughterhouse under risk-based inspection system.

Meat product inspection procedures are adopted to guarantee food quality and safety for consumption (1). Due to technologies and regulations advancement for farming and slaughtering pigs, a change in zoonotic profile attributed to pork has been identified (2,3). Frequently detected lesions during inspection procedures have no impact on public health, while the palpation and incision techniques used favor bacterial cross-contamination (2,4,5,6,7). This change in the zoonotic profile turns out necessary to review the inspection procedures according actual public health hazards based on risk analysis. Thus, a global movement began to establish inspection parameters based on epidemiological risk profiles, culminating in the publication of Normative Instruction 79 in Brazil in 2018 (8). In order to assess microbiological contamination when adopting a risk-based inspection system, the occurrence of Salmonella spp. and the quantification of enterobacteria and mesophiles were compared in pig carcasses slaughtered under traditional and risk-based inspection systems