Specific treatment of pig carcasses by double singeing

Singeing is an important stage in the slaughter process for reducing the surface contamination of carcasses.However, the downstream polisher is generally a source of re-contamination. For this reason operators often add an additional oven just before entry to the dressing line. To assess the utility of this double singeing bacteriological analyses on carcasses were carried out at three slaughterhouses with different throughputs. Swab samples were collected from the first table to determine the level of contamination at the entry to the dressing line. This second sampling indicates the effect of the second oven on carcass contamination. The double singeing improves the decontamination of total mesophilic flora at 30°C and enterobacteria. However, there exist differences between slaughterhouses that are not due to different line throughputs but arise from different initial levels of carcass contamination.