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Résumé :
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The microbiological effects on the product of the series of operations for skinning the hindquarters of beef carcasses at three packing plants were assessed. Samples were obtained at each plant from randomly selected carcasses, by swabbing specified sites related to opening cuts, rump skinning or flank skinning operations, randomly selected sites along the lines of the opening cuts, or randomly selected sites on the skinned hindquarters of carcasses. A set of 25 samples of each type was collected at each plant, with the collection of a single sample from each selected carcass. Aerobic counts, coliforms and Escherichia coli were enumerated in each sample, and a log mean value was estimated for each set of 25 counts on the assumption of a log normal distribution of the counts. The data indicated that the hindquarters skinning operations at plant A were hygienically inferior to those at the other two plants, with mean numbers of coliforms and E. Coli being about two orders of magnitude greater, and aerobic counts being an order of magnitude greater on the skinned hindquarters of carcasses from plant A than on those from plants B or C. The data further indicated that the operation for cutting open the skin at plant C was hygienically superior to the equivalent operation at plant B, but that the operations for skinning the rump and flank at plant B were hygienically superior to the equivalent operations at plant C.
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