Electrical Treatment of Poultry Chiller Water to Destroy Campylobacter jejuni

To control bacterial contamination in poultry processing, pulsed electricity in combination with a salt was evaluated as an electrical pasteurization method to kill Campylobacter jejuni in poultry chiller water. Chiller water from a poultry processing plant was mixed with either sodium chloride (NaCl) or trisodium phosphate (Na₃PO₄ 12H₂O or TSP) at 0.1 %, 0.2% or 0.3% concentration, and inoculated with C. jejuni at 1 × 10⁶ CFU/ml. The inoculated chiller water was treated at 4°C for 20 min using pulsed electrical signals at 10mA/cm² current, 1 kHz frequency and 50% duty cycle. Samples taken at different intervals were serially diluted, pre-enriched in Brucella-FBP broth, plated on Campy-Cefex agar and incubated, and colony-forming units (CFU) were counted. The results showed that C. jejuni was reduced and that the bacterial death rate was dependent upon pH of the salt solution, salt concentration, and treatment time. In the electrical treatments, C. jejuni was reduced linearly on log scale in the chiller water mixed with TSP, but nonlinearly with NaCl. Bacterial destruction rate was accelerated by higher concentrations or higher pH of NaCl or TSP added to chiller water.