Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to investigate the process sensitivity to Campylobacter spp. and to
assess the reduction efficiency of ozonation and chlorination in chilling step of the poultry process
using data derived from mCCDA plating and SimPlate MPN methods. Samples of 80 were collected
from 4 process steps in the processing plant (scalding, plucking, inside outside washing, and
chilling), Numbers of Campylobacter spp. on mCCDA at the respective steps were 3.35, 3.20, 2.68
and 0.20 logCFU/ml, while the SimPlate MPN had 2.54, 2.48, 2.31 and 0.84 log CFU/ml,
respectively. The numbers were inline with each other although mCCDA appeared to give higher
counts in early steps than that of the SimPlate MPN. SimPlate MPN was more sensitive at lower
cell concentrations at the chlorinated chilling step while mCCDA failed to detect the target
organism. The mCCDA results indicated that chilling is the most sensitive step followed by
plucking, and washing while SimP late MPN results had chilling, followed by washing, plucking and
scalding steps, respectively. Chlorination at 1.5 ppm reduced Campylobacter spp. by 97.46% and
58.62% on mCCDA and SimPlate MPN. Ozonation at 1.92 ppm with co-current flow reduced the
Campylobacter spp. by 77.33 % and 60.48 % at 30 min exposure and 71.99 % and 87.51 % at 60
min on the respective media. Ozonation at chilling step appeared to be effective alternative of
chlorination in poultry processing.