National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
|
PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
A cross sectional study to quantitatively assess the microbial load viz. total plate count (TPC), fecal coliform count (FCC) and total Staphylococcus count (TSC) was conducted in meat (n=60), water (n=60), and meat in-contact surface swab samples (n=228) collected from floor, cutting knife, hands of workers, cutting wood during processing of chevon in 8 retail meat shops and 2 abattoirs of Kolkata, West Bengal. The TPC, FCC and TSC were 6.27±0.48, 4.16±0.32 and 3.85±0.42 log cfu/cm2 for floor, 3.46±0.11, 1.36±0.17 and 2.34±0.28 log cfu/cm2 for hands of the workers and 3.12±0.18, 2.14±0.09 and 2.11±0.36 log cfu/cm2 for cutting knife used in the abattoir. On the other hand, the TPC, FCC and TSC values were 7.86±0.53, 5.69 ± 0.21 and 4.76±0.40 log cfu/cm2; 3.85±0.09, 1.98±0.16 and 3.88±0.31 log cfu/cm2; and 4.31±0.22, 3.04±0.13 and 3.55±0.32 log cfu/cm2 for floor, hands of workers and cutting knife, respectively in retail meat shops. Besides, water samples from abattoir had mean values for TPC, FCC and SPC as 6.18±0.71, 3.88±0.28 and 4.58±0.25 log cfu/ml, respectively against 9.28±0.68, 8.54±0.32 and 5.39±0.3 log cfu/ml, respectively from retail shops. The meat samples of retail shop had comparatively higher mean values of TPC (6.22 ±0.48 vs 5.14±0.12), FCC (4.22 ±0.28 vs 3.04±0.05) and TSC3.33 ±0.11vs2.74±0.11) log cfu/cm2 than meat samples from abattoir. Overall, the findings indicate higher level of contamination of the floor, water and equipment used in retail meat shops and reiterates the need for application of scientific interventions and capacity building of workers in order to improve the hygienic conditions of meat during production and processing, thereby ensuring its quality and safety for consumers.
Citations |
 |
 |
 |
 |
