Chicken must still be properly handled and thoroughly cooked to be safe. There are an estimated 2 million cases of salmonella poisoning each year. Of these, about 40,000 cases are culture-confirmed. Most exposure is from raw or undercooked meat, poultry, milk and eggs. A new way to detect unseen fecal contamination on fresh meat could help industry meet new food safety regulations designed to control disease-causing bacteria.
Feces are the major source of bacterial contamination in livestock and poultry slaughterhouses.
ARS and Iowa State University researchers built a detector, using fluorescent spectroscopy, that illuminates unseen fecal contamination on meat. The device is adaptable to any size packing plant. When redesigned as a hand-held unit, similar to metal detectors used in airports, the instrument could alert meat packers to fecal contamination within seconds. The contaminated carcass could then be sanitized before the contamination spreads. Meat packers now visually inspect carcasses for fecal contamination.