Assessment of Beef Meat Handling, Physicochemical and Bacteriological Properties of Selected Butcheries in Hawassa City, Ethiopia

Meat is the flesh of an animal that is considered edible, especially that of a mammal or bird and is nutritionally rich in protein and allied nutrients. The carcass of an animal’s pass through several channels before being consumed, even the handling of the meat by the consumers determines its nutrient availability. Fresh meats are easily contaminated during slaughtering and thereafter the processing. If not properly handled, processed and preserved, the meat is a good medium to support growth and proliferation of microorganisms. The problem of beef handling and hygiene in butchers’ enterprise are focusing in slaughter slabs, beef transportation and butcheries especially in some small butchers. Over the past two decades, consumers have been exposed to a series of food safety frights including major outbreaks of food borne diseases, food security issues, and contaminated food supplies. The aim of the study is to assess the physicochemical characteristics of the beef in outlets, which includes water loss, water activity, cooking loss/ water holding capacity, pH, shear force, moisture content and ash, and the bacteriological quality of the beef meat viz. aerobic plate count, coliform count, fecal coliform, E. coli 0157:H7 type I, S. aureus, Salmonella, and Shigella spp. The fresh beef meat samples were collected from Hawassa city randomly selected agricultural meat distributors. The laboratory analyses were done according to standard methods for the examination of foods. The results of this study revealed that the change in physicochemical properties, specifically the amount of water content decrease not only affected meat color and quality but also made meat dry and tough. However, the entire beef samples were at the food grade level. Bacteriologically meat samples were at good quality status compared to the standard set for fresh foods such as raw meat. Moreover, Salmonella and Shigella spp. in every 25 gm sample of raw beef were not detected. Environment, equipment and personnel sanitary hygiene during butchering beef meat helps to keep beef meat bacteriologically safe and quality.