Microbial Aspects of Mechanical Tenderization of Beef

The exterior parts of mechanically tenderized outside and inside rounds and rib eye had an aerobic plate count (22 C) in the range of 1.0 × 10¹ to 1.5 × 10⁴/g. The aerobic plate count of the interior parts of the same subprimal cuts was 1.0 × 10¹/g. Cleaning and sanitizing the tenderizer with an iodine-based sanitizer (25 ppm titratable iodine) decreased the bacterial population of both the conveyer belt and blades from 1.0 × 10³ to < 1.0 × 10¹/cm² or two blades (surface are area of 119.4 cm²) respectively. Clostridium petfringens and Salmonella were not detected from the exterior and interior parts of the tenderized outside round. Staphylococcus aureus , total Enterobacteriaceae and the coliform group were each at a level of < 1.0 × 10¹/g. Vacuum packaging of tenderized outside round and storage at 16 C for 18-20 h did not significantly (P < 0.05) increase either the aerobic or anaerobic bacterial counts.