Incidence of Salmonella in minced meat produced in a European Union-approved cutting plant

Contamination of minced meat with Salmonella is still considered a major problem in food hygiene. Therefore, in this study the Salmonella incidence in minced meat produced in a European Union-approved slaughtering and cutting plant was investigated in detail. Throughout 21 months, 297 pool samples (1,485 individual samples) of mixed minced meat (beef and pork) were examined according to Council Directive 94/65/EC and to ISO 6579. Salmonellae were detected in 47 (15.8%) of the pool samples. After separation of the positive pools, 93 individual samples were determined to be Salmonella positive, representing 6.3% of the total 1,485 samples. Serotyping resulted in most isolates (69.6%) being identified as Salmonella Typhimurium. It was further shown that the incidence of Salmonella isolations varied during the year and that the isolation rate was higher on some days of the week compared with others.