The effect of further processing system on selected microbiological, physical and chemical attributes of turkey meat products

Abstract

Research in this study was conducted in three phases. The firs t was concerned with the evaluation of the effect of carcass transfer and line transport, deboning operations, protein extraction and product wrapping, meat blending, product packaging and cooking-smoking procedures on total aerobic mesophiles and psychrophiles, total coliform, total Salmonella, total Shigella, Clostridium perfringens and Staphylococcus aureus bacterial concentrations. Boneless breast product, comminuted white meat roll and emulsion weiner product processing procedures were utilized to evaluate processing systems. Results indicated an increase in bacterial counts due to carcass transfer and line transport effects. Hand deboning procedures resulted in an increase in bacterial concentrations in both breast and thigh tissue. Mechanical deboning procedures also resulted in an increase in tissue bacterial content. Protein extraction and product wrapping procedures for turkey breast product produced only minor effects on tissue bacterial content. Bacterial content of turkey meat blends reflected the effect of combination of meat input components. Product packaging exerted only minor effects on the bacterial content of raw product. However, the handling required in packaging cooked product was associated with an increase in tissue bacterial content. Immersion water bath cooking, oven roasting and smoker cooking procedures were equally effective in reducing overall bacterial contents to essentially non-detectable concentrations.