Uso de radiação catalítica ionizante na descontaminação de uma linha de processamento de abatedouro de aves

Abstract

The objective of this work was to verify the effect of the use of ionizing catalytic radiation on the industrial process of chickens, especially in the IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) product line, where the microbiological conditions were determined through the ambient air analysis of the processing room, surface of the equipment where the products were handled and the cuts of processed chicken. The study was carried out in a commercial poultry slaughterhouse. The treatments consisted of: control (without using the equipment of ionizing catalytic radiation – RCI), and equipment utilization; the collection weeks for each treatment; the different collection times during the day (random days of the week) and sampling in duplicate. The experimental model adopted was the triple factorial scheme (treatment x week x time), with a subdivided plot (sample). Total viable bacteria counts, Enterobacteriaceae, aerobic mesophylls and coliforms at 45 °c were analyzed using analysis of variance; the residues were tested for normality and homoscedasticity and, when violated, an adequate transformation of the data was used. The analyzed variables of Salmonella spp. was multivariate to establish the correspondence between the absence and presence of target genes and to determine the difference between treatments. When ANOVA was significant (p <0.05), the Tukey test was performed. The results showed that with the use of ionizing catalytic radiation (RCI), a significant reduction of the total viable bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae and aerobic mesophylls, was observed in the environment and at the surface (p <0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the control treatment and the use of catalytic radiation for the counts of coliforms at 45 °c and Salmonella spp. in the chicken cuts (p> 0.05). It is concluded that RCI has proved to be an effective method of reducing environmental bacterial counts and the surfaces examined. However, its performance in carcasses and chicken cuts was not observed, mainly due to the exposure time.