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Carcass Microbiological Quality Following Intermittent Scalding and Defeathering

USDA-ARS, Russell Research Center, Athens, GA 30604-5677; Phone: (706) 546-3360; FAX: (706) 546-3633

J. A. Cason

Several non-conventional methods of removing feathers from poultry carcasses, such as simultaneous scalding and picking or steam scalding, reportedly yield better carcass microbiological quality than traditional immersion scalding and in-line picking. Many plants have installed multiple-tank counterflow scalders to reduce the number of bacteria in scald water at the point where carcasses leave the tank. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the microbiological effect of removing feathers from carcasses while they are out of the scald water moving between the tanks of a multiple-tank scalder. Partially defeathered carcasses in such a system would later pass through tanks with cleaner hot water, which might enhance any bactericidal or washing effect of the hot scald water, and much smaller quantities of feces and other contamination should enter the last picking machines. In the laboratory processing plant, however, intermittent scalding and picking of carcasses failed to show any reduction in umbers of aerobic bacteria, E. coli, or Campylobacter on carcasses rinsed immediately after the final defeathering step.

Key Words: Aerobic plate count • Campylobacter • defeathering • E. coli • scalding