Chemical decontamination procedures - no substitute for integrated hygiene concepts

On the surfaces of fresh poultry meat bacteria such as salmonella or campylobacter, which can cause gastrointestinal diseases in humans, are regularly detected. The pathogens can be transferred to the meat, if they already populated the live animals. In addition, germs can be transferred through cross-contamination during slaughtering, when cutting the meat into pieces and during treatment of the carcasses. In order to avoid infections transferred through contaminated foods, an integrated hygiene concept must be applied throughout the entire meat production process, i.e. from rearing and slaughtering down to the point of sale. Since these measures are, especially for poultry, effective only to a limited extent, a discussion is currently taking place within the European Union on the use of antimicrobial substances such as chlorine dioxide and peroxy acid for the purpose of removing germs from poultry carcasses. So far the use of such chemical substances for the decontamination of poultry carcasses is banned in the EU, because questions of resistance formation and environmental impact have not been conclusively answered. In addition, there is a lack of knowledge of unwanted health effects which may result from the fact that apart from the pathogenic germs, bacteria naturally occurring on the surface of poultry meat are killed as well. In the opinion of the Federal Institute of Risk Assessment (BfR), chemical procedures cannot replace the necessary integrated hygiene concepts. However, under certain circumstances they can supplement such concepts. The requirement for the use of chemical procedures is that their safety in terms of their health effects must first be established.DE; en; efsa-focal-point@bfr.bund.d