Evaluation of MicroTally Mitts for Detecting Foodborne Pathogens During Broiler Processing

Consumption of poultry products continues to rise in the United States, highlighting the importance of mitigating foodborne pathogens during poultry processing. Developing new methodologies to improve the detection of pathogens within processing plants is essential to protect food safety. Growing demand for a more representative sample and desire to improve bacterial detection at low levels have led to the evaluation of new sample collection tools. Our objective was to evaluate one such tool, the MicroTally® Mitt, a polymer fabric that has shown improved microbial recovery in beef trim and turkey carcasses, by comparing it to the traditional carcass or parts rinse method for detecting total aerobic microorganisms (rapid aerobic count; RAC), Enterobacteriaceae (EB), Campylobacter, and Salmonella before and after antimicrobial interventions. Additionally, the mitt was tested for its utility in collecting a composite sample (multi-carcass mitt). Three commercial broiler processing establishments were visited twice. Whole carcass samples were collected at hot rehang (n = 150) and post-chill (n = 150). Wing samples were collected before and after antimicrobial application (n = 136 and n = 147, respectively). A total of 233 whole carcass rinses (WCRs), 233 single-carcass mitts (SC-mitts), and 117 multi-carcass mitts (MC-mitts) were collected. As expected, recovery was greatest at hot rehang for all microbial counts (RAC, EB, Campylobacter, and Salmonella) and lowest post-chill. Deep serotyping of Salmonella culture-positive samples (n = 100) from hot rehang showed multiple serovars were detected in 53% (20/38) WCR, 58% (22/38) single-carcass mitt, and 50% (12/24) of multi-carcass mitt samples. For all microbial counts, the single-carcass mitt had comparable bacterial recovery to rinses in hot rehang samples. Low bacterial recovery following antimicrobial interventions prevented further sample type comparisons at other processing stages but showed processing intervention efficacy.