Bacteriological survey of the blue crab industry.
During sanitation inspections of 46 crabmeat processing plants on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, 487 samples of whole crabs immediately after cooking, cooked crabs after cooling, backed or washed (or both) crab bodies and whole crab claws, as well as 1,506 retail units of finished product were collected and analyzed bacteriologically. The 1,506 retail units (1-lb [373.24-g] cans) included 518 cans of regular (special) meat, 487 cans of claw meat, and 501 cans of lump meat. Statistical analyses showed that crabmeat from plants in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas had higher counts in 19 of 24 cases for the four bacteriological indices than crabmeat from plants located along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast of Florida. Aerobic plate counts of retail units collected from a previous day's production were significantly higher than those collected on the day of inspection. Regular crabmeat had consistently higher aerobic plate counts than claw or lump meat. When the product was handled expeditiously under good sanitary conditions, the bacteriological results were significantly better than the results from plants operating under poor sanitary conditions. Crabmeat produced in plants operating under good sanitary conditions had the following bacteriological content: (i) coliform organisms average most-probable-number values (geometric) of less than 20 per g; (ii) no Escherichia coli; (iii) coagulase-positive staphylococci average most-probable-number values (geometric) of less than 30 per g in 93% of the plants; (iv) aerobic plate count average values (geometric) of less than 100,000 per g in 93% of the plants, with the counts from 85% of these plants below 50,000 per g.
Bacterial flora of the hemolymph of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus: numerical taxonomy.
Bacteria isolated from the hemolymph of normal blue crabs were found to be predominantly Vibrio sp., Pseudomonas sp., Acinetobacter sp., Bacillus sp., Flavobacterium sp., and coliforms. Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a cosmopolitan facultative pathogen widely implicated in outbreaks of gastroenteritis related to the consumption of improperly processed seafood, was present in crabs collected between the months of May to November and was identified in up to 21% of the hemolymphs sampled.
Bacteriological Survey oftheFrozen Prepared FoodsIndustry II.Frozen Breaded RawShrimp
During inspection of21frozen breaded rawshrimp processors,861finished productunits (retail packages) and778line samples were collected andanalyzed bacteriologically. Thebacteriological results forthefinished product samples collected in plants with poorandgoodsanitary controls arepresented andcompared. Thesamples consisted of4to38units (retail packages) ofthefinished product asoffered for sale bytheprocessors.Frozen raw breaded shrimp collected fromplants operating under goodconditions ofsanitation hadthefollowing bacterial contents: 85% ofthe samples hadan average(geometric) aerobic plate countofless than1,000,000 per gram;allofthesamples hadan average(geometric) mostprobable numberofless than1,000 coliforms perg;81%ofthesamples contained less than20%Escherichia coli-positive units; 57%ofthetotal numberofunits in0.1-g portions werenegative forcoagulase-positive staphylococci, and95%oftheunits hadless than1,000 coagulase-positive staphylococci per gram.