Microbiological analysis of red meat poultry and eggs
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loginSome readers may wonder why the food commodities covered in this volume are confined to red meat, poultry and eggs. The answer is simply that these foods are, or have been, major global causes of foodborne human disease, and all are relatively susceptible to microbial growth and spoilage.
Red and white meats are traditionally associated with food poisoning that arises mainly from mishandling of the meat in the kitchen. In England and Wales, for example, there were more than 0.6 million cases of foodborne illness that were attributable to red meat and poultry during 1996–2000,
with 305 deaths. The principal causative agents were Campylobacter and Salmonella spp. (Health Protection Agency data). Shell eggs, on the other hand, were long regarded as a safe food to eat, even when raw or only lightly cooked and consumed by vulnerable groups in society. That viewpoint had to be modified, when strains of S. Enteritidis emerged in the 1980s with the capability of infecting the reproductive tract of the laying hen, because a small, but significant, proportion of shell eggs was then contaminated internally with Salmonella and there followed a pandemic of human salmonellosis. Thus, eggs had rapidly become one of the commonest sources of Salmonella outbreaks in many countries, a situation that took some years to show any real improvement – and could, conceivably, happen again! Microbiological analysis has a lengthy history as a means of monitoring the microbial quality and safety of foods, whether in relation to guidelines, product specifications or legally enforceable standards. Following the more recent development and gradual implementation of a risk-based, preventative approach to food safety control, microbiological testing of foods has a
further role to play and, in Europe, new microbiological criteria are being introduced that will encompass the food commodities considered here.
