Use of chemical treatments applied alone and in combination to reduce Campylobacter on raw poultry

Research focussing on the use of chemicals to decontaminate poultry carcasses to reduce pathogenic and spoilage organisms has increased in recent years. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of 12% (w/v) trisodium phosphate (TSP), 2% (w/v) citric acid (CA) and 5% (w/v) capric acid sodium salt (CP) in reducing Campylobacter, total viable counts and total Enterobacteriaceae counts on poultry. These chemicals were also used in various combinations (TSP + CA, TSP + CP and CA + CP) to determine if sequential treatments would enhance microbial reductions. TSP (1.9-2.3 log(10) cfu cm(2)) and CF (2.2 -2.4 log(10) cfu cm(2)) gave the largest Campylobacter jejuni reductions while TSP was the most effective at reducing TVC (0.9 log(10) cfu cm(2)) and TEC (0.9 log(10) cfu cm(2)). TSP + CP was the most effective combination treatment (2.9 log(10) cfu cm(2)) for reducing C jejuni counts and was significantly (P < 0.05) greater than any of the single chemical treatments, with the exception of CP treatment against strain 1146 (2.4 log(10) cfu cm(2)). The TVC and TEC populations proved more resistant to combination treatments as only TSP + CF showed a significantly (p < 0.05) enhanced reductive efficacy in comparison to single CP treatment. This study provides further data on the efficacy of a number of potential chemicals used alone and in combination for the decontamination of raw poultry. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.