Abstract:

Since 2004, Brazil occupies a prominent position in chicken meat market, having been placed as the third largest producer in the world and settled as the largest exporter in international trade, especially for chicken cuts, which represented more than 52% of total exported. After cuts removal, a portion of meat still remains linked to the bones, which can be extracted, constituting one of the most used ingredients in meat products named mechanically deboned chicken meat (MDCM). A technical regulation of quality and identity of poultry, beef and pork deboned meat was established by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), in order to fix the microbiological and physical-chemical MDCM parameters that must be met by manufacturers with brands available in market. The objective of this study was to evaluate MDCM based on the acceptance criteria established by MAPA. Six lots, from five different brands of MDCM, were collected, each comprised of five samples. All of them had different manufacturing dates, but within the expiration date (90 days). Microbiological analysis performed in the meat matrix were Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens. All brands have been accepted with respect to C. perfringens parameter. However, two brands were rejected with respect to Salmonella spp., as they exceeded the limit of acceptance for the test (c Andamp;gt; 2). S. aureus mean counts were 2.38log UFC/g; 2.95log UFC/g; 2.54log UFC/g; 2.04log UFC/g; and 2.95log UFC/g for brands 1 to 5, respectively, which represented an 80% brands rejection. The presence of such pathogens could lead to a product contamination and a possible food-borne illness. Furthermore, it is an indicative that public and private quality self-control programs should be improved to ensure quality of this product.