A Method for Decreasing Sampling Variance in Bacteriological Analyses of Meat Surfaces ^{1, 2}

Viable counts of bacteria are often high in some areas and low in adjacent areas of the same surface of fresh meat. The present study indicated that rubbing meat surfaces together before sampling reduces variation among bacterial plate counts of pieces of beef plate meat. Counts before rubbing ranged from 2 to 6,187/cm², whereas counts after rubbing ranged from 15 to 2,043/cm². The reduced sample variance allowed for fewer samples to be taken in studies of cleaning and sanitizing of fresh beef.