Risk Factors for Bacterial Contamination of Bovine Meat during Slaughter in Ten Indonesian Abattoirs

摘要

Provision of beef meat which does not exceed the maximum microbial contamination limit is expected to meet the requirements toobtain safe, healthy, wholesome, and halal beef. Bacterial contamination during slaughtering process is a safety problem and concernfor shelf life in meat production. This study was designed to determine the value of microbial contamination and its risk factors at thestage of the slaughtering process in the abattoirs. This research was conducted by visual observation accompanied by questionnairesand laboratory examination for bacterial contamination testing. The results showed the factor that significantly affected the totalplate count (TPC) was carcass cutting (mean: 0.46 × 10~6 CFU/g; p= 0.035) which was not carried out by the abattoir. The factor thathad the greatest effect on the MPN of Escherichia coli was blood removal on the foor position (mean: 40.34 × 10~6 CFU/g; p= 0.039)while the factors that significantly affected Staphylococcus aureus contamination were blood removal on the foor position (mean:52.88 × 10~6 CFU/g; p = 0.025) and carcass cutting which were not carried out by the abattoir (mean: 66.42 × 10~6 CFU/g; p= 0.015).