[Salmonella in minced meat from ten meat inspection services in the Netherlands (author's transl)]

Throughout a period of thirteen months, samples of minced meat from ten different meat inspection services in the Netherlands were examined weekly for the presence of Salmonella. One hundred samples of 150 g. of each meat inspection service were studied by six different methods. Marked differences in contamination of minced meat with Salmonella were observed between the various localities. These were differences in the proportion of contaminated samples from each meat inspection service (lowest 10%, highest 39%) on the one hand and differences in the number of contaminated sub-samples of each sample of minced meat (smallest 18, largest 139) on the other. Moreover, the season obviously was a factor in contamination of minced meat with Salmonella, the contamination rate increasing with the outside temperature. As a rule, contamination by Salmonella was less common in minced beef than it was in minced beef and pork mixed. Contamination of minced meat with Salmonella usually was less common in minced meat from butchers' shops in which slaughtering was done by the butcher himself than it was in minced meat from slaughterhouses. The organisms most frequently isolated in the present study were S. typhi murium phage type II 505, S. panama and S. brandenburg. Of the methods of isolation used, those with pre enrichment and direct enrichment in TBB at 43 degrees C were found to produce the most satisfactory results.