The objective of this work was to establish, on the grounds of obtained
results for the total number of bacteria before and after completed
disinfection, whether there are differences in the efficiency of disinfection
performed by a professional and disinfection carried out by an unqualified
employee in a private slaughterhouse. The material used in these
investigations were samples of wet-dry swabs taken over a course of five
weeks, before and after disinfection carried out by an unqualified employee
and the skilled professional, from the following: the knife used for
evisceration, the floor in the evisceration area, from the table serving for
bristle removal, and from the floor underneath the bristle removal surface.
The wet-dry swabs were taken according to the procedure described in the
standard method ISO 18593 (Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs -
Horizontal methods for sampling techniques from surfaces using contact plates
and swabs). Analyzing the taken samples, the total number of bacteria was
determined using the standard method ISO 4833 (Microbiology of food and
animal feeding stuffs - Horizontal method for the enumeration of
microorganisms - Colony-count technique at 30?C). Disinfection was carried
out using a chlorine preparation (sodium dichloroisocyanurate dihydrate) in a
concentration of 0.02% and for an exposure period of 30 min. The results were
interpreted on the grounds of the border values in evaluating the hygiene of
the equipment, tools, and work surfaces, presented in Commission Decision
471/2001/ EC. The results of the investogations have shown that the
disinfection performed by the skilled professional was more efficient than
the disinfection performed by the unqualified person, as the total number of
bacteria was significantly smaller (p<0.01) in the course of all 5
experimental weeks on the evisceration knife, the floor under the bristle
removal surface, during weeks 1, 2 and 5, and on the floor in the
evisceration area in weeks 1 and 5.
Investigations of influence of disinfection procedures on hygiene in private slaughterhouse