Cetylpyridinium Chloride (CPC) Treatment on Poultry Skin To Reduce Attached Salmonella

Cetylpyridinium chloride (1-hexadecylpyridinium chloride, CPC) was evaluated for its effectiveness in removing or killing salmonellae attached to poultry skin. Two different treatment methods were used: (i) spraying 0.1% CPC solution at 15°C or 50°C against inoculated skin surface for 1 min at 138 kPa, and (ii) immersing inoculated skin surface in 0.1% CPC solution at room temperature for either 1 min, 1 min plus 2 min holding without CPC, or 3 min. After rinsing, cells on the skins were enumerated by conventional plating as well as direct counting from scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Compared with controls, CPC spraying reduced the numbers of salmonellae by 0.9 to 1.7 log units (87 to 98%) assayed by the plating method (P < 0.05). SEM gave results similar to plating. Generally 50°C CPC spraying showed greater reduction than 15°C CPC spraying; however, the differences were not always significant. Water spraying at either temperature did not show any reduction compared to nonsprayed skins. In the immersion test, significant differences also were noticed among the control and the three other CPC-immersed groups (P < 0.05) as assayed by plating, ranging from 1.0 to 1.6 log units, which were similar to the CPC spraying results. However, no difference was noticed among the three CPC-immersed groups. Direct counting from SEM was not a suitable method for recovering cells in CPC immersion tests because dead cells were still attached to the skin while retaining their intact morphology. On the basis of the amount of CPC used, immersion appears to be more cost-effective than spraying CPC on poultry skin.