TY - JOUR
T1 - Multiple Interventions for Improving Food Safety Practices in 2 Small Beef Abattoirs of Honduras and Associated Impacts on Risk-Mitigation Management
AU - Casas, Diego
AU - Calle, Alexandra
AU - Bueso, Mariely
AU - Huerta-Leidenz, Nelson
AU - Miller, Markus F.
AU - Brashears, Mindy M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by the Cooperative Agreement for Research, Technical Assistance and Grant Aid between the Honduran Bank for Production and Housing (BANHPROVI) and Texas Tech University for “Strengthening of Production and Industrialization of Beef, Sheep and Goats”.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Mitigation of risk for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and Salmonella contamination was evaluated after a multiple-intervention approach (comprising food safety education and training, implementation of customized food safety practices and programs, and environmental monitoring programs with audits and corrective actions) in 2 small Honduran beef abattoirs. Previously, neither abattoir had food safety programs in place nor were they subjected to strict food safety regulatory surveillance. Abattoirs A and B were sampled on 4 nonconsecutive months each. Swab samples of abattoir A (n = 160, 40 samples per sampling date) and abattoir B (n = 78, 16-22 samples per sampling date) were taken from direct and indirect food contact surfaces, screened by BAX real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays and confirmed using immunomagnetic separation, selective media, and latex agglutination. In abattoir A, Salmonella presence was negligible, whereas presumptive STECs were present in 10%, 12.5%, 0%, and 5% of the environmental samples respective to each sampling month, indicating a reduction of STEC (P =.06) by the third and fourth sampling months. Conversely, presumptive STEC presence was negligible in abattoir B, whereas Salmonella presence for each sampling month was of 5.6%, 6.3%, 27.3%, and 0.0%, respectively. Upon the increased pathogen presence detected on the third sampling month, additional actions were taken to reinforce the implementation of food safety practices and programs, which resulted in a Salmonella reduction to 0% by the fourth sampling month (P =.013). The satisfactory results strongly suggest that a multiple-intervention approach is crucial to improve food safety in this type of premises.
AB - Mitigation of risk for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and Salmonella contamination was evaluated after a multiple-intervention approach (comprising food safety education and training, implementation of customized food safety practices and programs, and environmental monitoring programs with audits and corrective actions) in 2 small Honduran beef abattoirs. Previously, neither abattoir had food safety programs in place nor were they subjected to strict food safety regulatory surveillance. Abattoirs A and B were sampled on 4 nonconsecutive months each. Swab samples of abattoir A (n = 160, 40 samples per sampling date) and abattoir B (n = 78, 16-22 samples per sampling date) were taken from direct and indirect food contact surfaces, screened by BAX real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays and confirmed using immunomagnetic separation, selective media, and latex agglutination. In abattoir A, Salmonella presence was negligible, whereas presumptive STECs were present in 10%, 12.5%, 0%, and 5% of the environmental samples respective to each sampling month, indicating a reduction of STEC (P =.06) by the third and fourth sampling months. Conversely, presumptive STEC presence was negligible in abattoir B, whereas Salmonella presence for each sampling month was of 5.6%, 6.3%, 27.3%, and 0.0%, respectively. Upon the increased pathogen presence detected on the third sampling month, additional actions were taken to reinforce the implementation of food safety practices and programs, which resulted in a Salmonella reduction to 0% by the fourth sampling month (P =.013). The satisfactory results strongly suggest that a multiple-intervention approach is crucial to improve food safety in this type of premises.
KW - Salmonella
KW - Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli
KW - food safety
KW - training
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083782990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1178630220914596
DO - 10.1177/1178630220914596
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85083782990
VL - 14
JO - Environmental Health Insights
JF - Environmental Health Insights
SN - 1178-6302
ER -