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Evaluation of the microbiological status of raw pork meat in Korea: modification of the microbial guideline levels for meat

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Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the suitability of total aerobic plate count (APC) guidelines for raw pork (< 1 × 107 CFU/g) distributed in Korea. The APC values for raw pork collected from meat packing centers and meat shops in three provinces (Seoul/Gyeonggi, Gangwon, and Chungcheong) were reported to be ≤ 1.5 × 106 CFU/g. To evaluate practical APC guidelines for pork and meat quality, APC levels and quality traits were determined for pork under cold storage. On day 12, APC for pork was 4.3 × 106 CFU/g, which was below the guideline level, while overall acceptability scores were < 3.0, indicating that the pork was rated as not acceptable by sensory panels. Therefore, to satisfy both the microbiological safety of pork and organoleptic quality for consumer palatability, we suggest that the current APC guideline levels for pork should be lowered to 1 × 106 CFU/g.

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Acknowledgements

This work was carried out with the support of Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Republic of Korea. Also this study was partially supported by Brain Korea 21 plus project (Human Resource Development for Next Generation Animal Life Industry with ICT-Big Data) from the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development in Korea.

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  1. Department of Animal Products and Food Science, College of Animal Life Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, 24341, Republic of Korea

    Hye-Jin Kim & Aera Jang

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  1. Hye-Jin Kim
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  2. Aera Jang
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Correspondence to Aera Jang.

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Kim, HJ., Jang, A. Evaluation of the microbiological status of raw pork meat in Korea: modification of the microbial guideline levels for meat. Food Sci Biotechnol 27, 1219–1225 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-018-0356-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-018-0356-7

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