Study to Determine the Critical Control Points in Beef Slaughter Line in order to Establish a HACCP system

Aerobic mesophilic counts (AMC)، were obtained by swabbing 25 cm2 areas at seven site (neck، brisket، leg، flank، rib set، forehand، hind quarter) on beef carcasses، after each Slaughter process (skinning، evisceration، splitting، trimming and primary washing، final washing). Reduction in counts at individual sites were observed after trimming and primary washing (about 0. 2 log cfu. cm-2) and final washing (about 0. 2 log cfu. cm-2) similarly. Increases in counts at most outside sites were observed after skinning، (about 2. 5 - 3. 5 log cfu. cm-2) and after evisceration، at brisket (about 1 log cfu. cm-2) and forehand (about 0. 5 log cfu. cm-2) respectively. The incidence of Salmonella and E. coli on beef carcasses were also obtained by swabbing the outside surfaces of 12 carcasses after each stage. A large number of increases in positive samples for E. coli and Salmonella was observed after skinning and after evisceration (16. 6% and 9. 2% respectively). After final washing Salmonella and E. coli were detected on 11. 9% and 7. 1% of samples. The impact of beef slaughter processes on carcass microbiology and their potential use as critical control points (CCPs) during beef production are discussed.