The Microbiological Condition of Canadian Beef Steaks Offered for Retail Sale in Canada

Abstract

<p>Steaks of 4 types collected from 113 retails stores in 4 Canadian cities were frozen for storage. Swab samples collected from approximately 100 cm² of each of 598 thawed steaks were processed for enumeration of bacteria. The fraction of steaks from which total aerobic counts (AER), psychrotrophs (PSY), lactic acid bacteria (LAB), pseudomonads(PSE) and <em>Brochothrix thermosphacta</em> (BRO) were not recovered at <span style="text-decoration: underline;">&gt;</span> 2 log cfu/100 cm²were 3, 12, 8, 25 and 51%, respectively. The fractions of steaks from which coliforms (COL) and <em>Escherichia coli</em> (ECO) were not recovered at <span style="text-decoration: underline;">&gt;</span> 0 log cfu/ 100 cm²were 56 and 92%, respectively. The log number per 100 cm² recovered from <span style="text-decoration: underline;">&gt;</span> 90% of steaks were &lt; 6 for AER, PSY and LAB, &lt; 5 for PSE, &lt;4 for BRO, and &lt; 2 for COL. The microbiological conditions of groups of steaks of different types, from different cities or from different groups of stores were not substantially different.</p>