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.
Bacteriological survey of the frozen prepared foods industry. I. Frozen cream-type pies.
During Food and Drug Administration inspections of 12 imitation cream pie producers, 453 finished product samples and 350 line samples were collected and analyzed bacteriologically. Sanitary conditions in the plants varied from good to poor and, in general, were reflected in the bacteriological results. The survey revealed that, in the great majority of cases, frozen imitation-cream pies produced in plants operating under good conditions of sanitation had the following bacteriological content: (i) a most probable number (MPN) of fewer than three Escherichia coli cells per gram (i.e., absent from all tubes in the methodology employed), (ii) an average MPN of fewer than 50 coliforms per gram (10 or more pies), (iii) the absence of coagulase-positive staphylococci in 0.1-g portions, and (iv) an aerobic plate count of fewer than 25,000 per gram (geometric mean of 10 or more pies).
Bacteriological Survey of the Frozen Prepared Foods Industry: III. Potato Products.
[This corrects the article on p. 1327 in vol. 15.].