Evaluation ofSalmonellaMonitoring during Meat Inspection

Abstract

Japanese slaughterhouses certifying meat exports to the United States are obliged to monitorSalmonellain accordance with partially revised American regulations for sanitary examinations. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture prescribes a monitoring detection sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of more than 96%. In this study, we compared standard methods of analysis in Food Safety Regulations (FHT method) with the FSIS method for meat samples inoculated withSalmonella. In samples inoculated with H₂S positiveSalmonella, results obtained by the FHT and the FSIS method were almost the same. In samples inoculated with H₂S negativeSalmonella, however, detection rates obtained with the FHT method were clearly lower than those obtained with the FSIS method.