Bacteriological profile of frozen broiler chickens

Abstract EN

A total of 122 (67 imported and 55 locally processed) frozen broiler chicken samples in a form of whole carcasses, wings, legs and breast pieces were purchased from different retail outlets at Tokyo area, Japan, for bacteriological assessment.

The means of total aerobic counts (TAC), S.

aurous counts and MPN of coliforms in the imported and locally processed broiler chicken meat were (4.10 ± 0.91 and 4.77 ± 0.22), (2.03 ± 0.10 and 2.27 ± 0.13) and (1.94 ± 0.14 and 2.46 ± 0.16) log CFU / g, respectively, with average values in all the examined samples of 4.43 ± 0.55, 2.13 ± 0.11 and 2.20 ± 0.15 log CFU / g.

The counts in the locally processed chicken meat were found to be significantly higher than that in the imported ones.

Frozen broiler chicken meat was proved to show lower profiles of microbiological contamination than the fresh ones, moreover, the imported broiler meats to Japan were proved to be of low microbial profile in comparison to the locally produced ones.

The study reinforces the importance of hygienic measures adopted during production, retailing and handling of chicken meat as well as the importance of freezing as a method of preservation.