Food Safety Management System validation and verification in meat industry: Carcass sampling methods for microbiological hygiene criteria - A review

During validation and verification of the system for the proper implementation of HACCP principles, it is essential to rely on microbiological data. Considerable science research has been carried out during the last twenty years on sampling and testing of carcasses for hygiene criteria. This includes the preferable indicator microorganisms to be used, in order to indicate the general hygiene of slaughtering procedures, the evaluation of microbiological data gathered and the sampling methods. Furthermore, European Union (EU) and the United States have adopted the procedures for HACCP validation and verification in their legislation. The aim of this review is to demonstrate the relevant modern trends in this field of food science. In conclusion, microbiological data based on the indicators should be interpreted only to assess general trends in the hygiene process of the operator in order to take corrective action. Microbiological results, obtained only at the end of the slaughtering process, do not provide information on the cause of the problem. Therefore, ‘process-based’ microbiological criteria which are based on values measured at various stages of the process, including final carcass values, should be used. Finally, in order to implement an adequate monitoring system, non-destructive techniques of carcass sampling could be used instead of excision. The microbial recovery may be lower, but it is proportional to the excision recovery and therefore, non-destructive techniques, like swabbing with sponges, could be a practical sampling method for the estimation of indicators during the slaughtering procedure and hygiene evaluation. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.