Efficacy of a novel two-sided drop-through photonic decontamination system on Salmonella and Campylobacter reduction on broiler parts.

Abstract

Antimicrobial intervention procedures are important in poultry processing to minimize foodborne pathogen contamination on raw meat. High-intensity pulsed light has been assessed as a novel alternative to currently used chemical antimicrobials in the poultry industry. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a novel two-sided drop-through photonic decontamination system developed by PulseForge Inc. that employs pulsed light for reducing aerobic plate counts (APC), Enterobacteriaceae (EB), Salmonella, and Campylobacter on whole wings and tenders. A total of eight individual repetitions were carried out, with the first five repetitions evaluating APC, EB, and Sal and the last three repetitions focusing only on Campylobacter. Treatments included an inoculated control (no treatment), pulsed light treatment (PL), 30 s water dip, 30 s water dip with PL, 30 s peracetic acid dip (PAA, 200 ppm), 30 s PAA dip with PL, three parts simultaneously with PL, and five parts simultaneously with PL. Parts were inoculated with either 10⁵ CFU S. Infantis or Campylobacter, and each treatment was performed. Bacterial recovery counts were log transformed and are reported as log₁₀ CFU/mL. All treatments which included the application of pulsed light reduced APC, EB, Sal, and Campylobacter on both tenders and wings when compared to the inoculated control, with the exception of Campylobacter on tenders, which was not reduced. The addition of a pulsed light treatment combined with prior PAA dip resulted in additional bacterial reductions on tenders and wings for APC, EB, Sal, and Campylobacter, with the exception of Campylobacter on tenders. Additionally, even when multiple parts are sent through the pulsed light machine simultaneously, reductions were still achieved comparable to sending a single part through at a time. Overall, the use of pulsed light was able to reduce levels of microbial loads against pathogens commonly associated with raw poultry.