Antimicrobial dips and sprays are aiding processors in achieving food-safety goals from animal harvest all the way through various points of processing, including fresh-cut products. By using antimicrobial dips and sprays, pathogens such as Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Campylobacter jejuni along with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, can be reduced in numbers on carcasses as well as reduced in frequency of carcasses that bear pathogens.
“Bringing pathogenic bacteria to zero without having a very specific process such as cooking, radiation or pasteurization is often not achievable, so the goal is always to reduce to levels that are as close to zero as possible realizing that completely eliminating bacteria on the raw side without a more invasive method, which can have a detriment of quality, is not realistic,” explains Jeff Sindelar, extension meat specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Dips and sprays aid in a food-safety systems with proper hygiene process, sanitary design of equipment, good manufacturing practices, well developed and effective standard operating procedures as well as sanitation standard operating procedures. All of that goes into aiding in a system, and then all of that allows the antimicrobial dips and sprays to be even more effective.”