認定小規模食鳥処理場の生食用鶏肉加工におけると体表面の焼烙による加熱が微生物汚染低減にもたらす効果

抄録

Chicken-sashimi is a heat-seared poultry meat dish firmly established in the food culture of Kagoshima. It is now becoming widely consumed across Japan. The chicken-sashimi supplied in Kagoshima is heat-seared following carcass chilling, whereas that supplied in other regions is processed without heat-searing. Mounting epidemiological data has shown associations between non-heated-seared chicken-sashimi and Campylobacter food poisoning in most metropolitan areas, whereas chicken-sashimi-related food poisoning is rare in Kagoshima. We thus aimed to investigate the process-by-process (de-feathering, chilling, and heat-searing) dynamics of Campylobacter and fecal indicator bacterial levels in the production of chicken-sashimi from slaughtered birds at a poultry processing plant in Kagoshima. We examined 30 chicken-carcasses, and Campylobacter was detected in small quantities on the 5 samples of carcass surface after de-feathering, but was not detected in any swabs taken after chilling. E. coli and coliform were not detected, and general bacterial counts were held below 0.9 cfu/g after heat-searing, indicating that cauterization by heat-searing effectively reduced microbiological contamination of the chicken meat. This is the first report on a hygiene control strategy for chicken-sashimi, describing microbiological dynamics. Our data suggests that thorough treatment at each process enables the safe supply of chicken-sashimi for minimized risk of human infection.