Hot‐Water Rinsing and Trimming/Washing of Beef Carcasses to Reduce Physical and Microbiological Contamination

A field study was conducted to compare trimming/washing procedures with hot-water rinsing as interventions for beef carcass decontamination. Treatments included no trimming/no washing; knife-trimming followed by spray-washing (26°C, 276 kPa followed by 1000 kPa); and hot-water rinsing (> 77°C, 138–152 kPa, 2.5 or 8 sec) following either knife-trimming or no knife-trimming of the contaminated site and spray-washing. Samples were analyzed for counts of total aerobic bacteria, total coliforms and Escherichia coli, as well as for the presence of Salmonella spp. and E. coli O157:H7. Results indicated decontamination of beef carcasses could be achieved by knife-trimming followed by spray-washing or by spray-washing followed by hot-water rinsing.