Salmonella surveillance and control at post harvest in the Belgian pork meat chain.

Salmonella remains the primary cause of reported bacterial food borne disease outbreaks in Belgium.
Pork and pork products are recognized as one of the major sources of human salmonellosis. In contrast
with the primary production and slaughterhouse phases of the pork meat production chain, only a few
studies have focussed on the post-harvest stages. The goal of this study was to evaluate Salmonella and
Escherichia coli contamination at the Belgian post-harvest stages. E. coli counts were estimated in order to
evaluate the levels of faecal contamination. The results of bacteriological analysis from seven cutting
plants, four meat-mincing plants and the four largest Belgian retailers were collected from official and
self-monitoring controls. The prevalence of Salmonella in the cutting plants and meat-mincing plants
ranged from 0% to 50%. The most frequently isolated serotype was Salmonella typhimurium. The prevalence
in minced meat at retail level ranged from 0.3% to 4.3%. The levels of Salmonella contamination
estimated from semi-quantitative analysis of data relating to carcasses, cuts of meat and minced meat
were equal to 3.40 2.04 log CFU/cm2, 2.64 1.76 log CFU/g and 2.35 1.09 log CFU/g, respectively.
The E. coli results in meat cuts and minced meat ranged from 0.21 0.50 to 1.23 0.89 log CFU/g and
from 1.33 0.58 to 2.78 0.43 log CFU/g, respectively. The results showed that faecal contamination still
needs to be reduced, especially in specific individual plants.