Food-Safety Products For Beef Packers And Processors
US - Elanco Food Solutions has introduced its first two food-safety products for the beef industry. Finalyse™ is a pre-harvest hide wash that targets E. coli pathogens on live beef animals as they enter the packing plant. BoviBrom™ is a post-harvest carcase rinse that reduces E. coli and Salmonella pathogens on the carcase during processing.
29 January 2010
3 minute read
Finalyse is the first available pre-harvest hide wash applied as a solution to live cattle in the holding area before cattle enter a harvest facility. Research conducted at multiple locations — including a commercial beef-harvest facility — has demonstrated that Finalyse reduces the E. coli O157:H7 burden on the hide and decreases trim-positive rates.
“Because cattle hides are primary reservoirs for E. coli O157:H7, interventions such as Finalyse can reduce the amount of E. coli on hides, thus reducing pathogen loads coming into the packing facility,” says Tom Nicholson, director of sales and technical services for Elanco Food Solutions. “Finalyse is the industry’s first hide wash for live cattle that’s used as a food-safety intervention to reduce the level of food-borne pathogens prior to animals entering the plant.”
Finalyse is a mixture of bacteriophages that specifically targets E. coli O157:H7. Bacteriophages are naturally occurring organisms found in soil, water, and human and animal intestinal tracts.
In one large-scale commercial plant study, Finalyse reduced trim-positives by 56 per cent (p=0.06). In addition, a recently completed hide-square challenge model found that the Finalyse EC treatment reduced E. coli pathogens by 1.5 logs to 2.2 logs.
BoviBrom is a post-harvest antimicrobial carcase rinse proven effective against E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. It dissolves in water to form hypobromous acid, a safe and widely used compound, and has a mode of action that complements both pH- and heat-based pathogen interventions.
When used according to label directions*, diluted BoviBrom forms a near-neutral (6.8) pH solution in water that is safe for workers, plant equipment and the environment. “BoviBrom is less corrosive to plant equipment and floors than current interventions, and there are no acid, steam or odour issues, and there is no meat discoloration or carcass damage associated with commonly used high-temperature washes,” Mr Nicholson says. “Plus, the BoviBrom Application System™ easily integrates into high-volume water processes, and configures to existing spray-wash systems with minimal installation, maintenance and space requirements.”
Testing conducted at the US Department of Agriculture’s (UDSA) Meat Animal Research Centre (MARC) in Clay Center, Nebraska, found a 1.5-log to 2.1-log reduction in E. coli and a >1-log reduction in Salmonella when BoviBrom was applied to beef carcases.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that food-borne diseases cause an estimated 76 million illnesses, hospitalise 325,000 people and cause 5,000 deaths in the US each year. Food-borne illnesses cost the United States between $5 billion and $22 billion annually, with Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 alone costing more than $3 billion.
“Consumers have high expectations for their food to be safe and Elanco Food Solutions is proud to be part of a food chain that delivers on that promise,” says Mr Nicholson. “We realise there is no single ‘silver-bullet’ solution, so we’ll deliver multiple pre- and post-harvest interventions for beef, poultry and pork packers and processors that will help reduce food-borne pathogens in packing and processing plants. Finalyse and BoviBrom are the first of many interventions that we will introduce to the beef industry.
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