Microbiological Hazards Assessment of Psychrotrophic Microflora in Bovine Carcasses Slaughtered in North West Romania

Gram negative bacteria have the greatest capacity to spoil the meat if kept under aerobic conditions, therefor the members of the genera Pseudomonas, Acinetobater, Psychrobacter and Moraxella, will form the dominant microflora. The purpose of this study was to assess the contamination level with psychrotropic microflora of bovine carcasses in order to prove how the results could be used to improve the slaughter process. The research was carried out between January-December 2015, in two slaughterhouses from North West Romania. The research material was represented by 144 meat samples (slaughterhouse A, n=72, slaughterhouse B, n=72). Weekly, 3 samples were collected from refrigerated carcasses, and examined for total psychrotrophic counts (TPC), Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas, Aeromonas and Yersinia. From statistical processing of recorded data was established that mean log TPC from the surface of refrigerated carcasses has presented different values, ranged between 3.70±0.20 log CFU/cm2 and 6.90±0.43 log CFU/cm2. Initial surface microflora of bovine carcasses was represented by germs from the following genera: Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Aeromonas, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Yersinia, Serratia, Hafnia, Proteus and Escherichia. Microbiological hazard assessment reveals the key role of psychotropic microorganisms in the spoilage of meat, if the monitoring system of the slaughtering process is not functioning properly