Microbiological condition of horse meat prepared at a North American packing plant, and control of the temperatures of product air freighted to Europe

To obtain information about the microbiological quality of horse meat exported from North America, the microbiological conditions of hot or cold boned primal cuts and carcass quarters from horse carcasses processed at a North American packing plant were examined. In addition, temperature histories were obtained from boxes of hot boned meat during cooling, and from horse carcass quarters air freighted to Europe. The log mean numbers of aerobes recovered from horse carcasses after dressing were >2 log cfu/cm2. Log total numbers of coliforms and Escherichia coli recovered from 25 samples from such carcasses were >2 log and <2 log cfu/2500 cm2, respectively. Numbers of bacteria generally similar to those were recovered from cooled carcasses or hot or cold boned cuts. The cooling process for hot boned meat met with standards for hot boned beef cooling processes based on calculated growth of E. coli at box centres. The deep tissues of carcass quarters cooled and the temperatures of their surfaces rose during air freighting, but surface temperatures mostly remained below 7 °C. The microbiological condition of horse carcass quarters delivered to plants in Europe would likely be comparable with the microbiological conditions of hanging beef delivered from packing plants to distant customers within North America.