Airborne Microorganisms in a Pork Processing Establishment

Abstract

Airborne microorganisms were enumerated in the various processing rooms of a commercial pork slaughter and further processing plant, every other month for a year. The room where sausage emulsions were prepared had higher airborne aerobic bacteria and yeast-mold counts than the other rooms sampled. The mean log aerobic bacteria counts per 0.028 m3 across months were 1.83, 1.83, 1.82, 1.71, 1.93, 2.48, 2.08, 1.62, and 0.95 for the evisceration, offal, carcass cooler, carcass breaking, curing cellar, sausage emulsion preparation, sausage stuffing, sausage packaging, and sliced meat packaging rooms, respectively. The mean log yeast-mold counts per 0.028 m3 for the same rooms were 0.90. 0.88, 0.32, 1.06, 1.11, 1.25, 1.03, 1.01, and 0.97, respectively. Coliform counts did not exceed 5 per 0.028 m3 in any of the samplings and usually were totally absent from the sampled air except in the sausage stuffing and the offal rooms. The mean log aerobic counts per 0.028 m3 for all sampling locations combined were 1.86, ...