Establishment of Critical Control Points for Enteric Pathogens in Beef Production

The association of virulent pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, with beef has provoked a need to improve food safety within the industry. To this end HACCP has been made mandatory in federal licensed slaughterhouses. However, the issue whether to implement HACCP in provincial plants is still cause for debate. Studies to date would suggest that current good manufacturing practice produces meat of comparable microbiological quality of that produced under HACCP. Given the range of slaughterhouse line speeds and capacities it is likely that the hazards in a large plant would be different to those in smaller operations. In the proposed study the carriage and transfer of enteric contamination in federal and provincial beef processing lines (farm to breaking) will be compared. Traditionally, verification studies have been based on indicator counts (total viable count, coliforms) or pathogen prevalence. Although plate count data can provide an overall assessment of the success of HACCP/GMP schemes it cannot indicate the origins of the contamination or key cross-contamination sites (Critical Control Points). In this study molecular typing of E. coli will be used to trace the carriage and transfer of enteric contamination on carcasses. In addition, detailed studies will be performed to establish the significance pre-slaughter handling and airborne contamination in defining the microbiological quality of beef carcasses.