Summary
Symbio Alliance was contracted to undertake a survey of the microbial safety and quality of raw ground beef components exported to the US.
Although the microbiological quality of lean beef trim has been studied extensively there is a dearth of information on all other components of raw ground beef - eg, head meat, cheek meat, oesophagus/weasand meat, organ meat and advanced meat recovery product.
The results of a telephone survey of all registered establishments exporting meat products to the US were provided to MLA in November 2007.
Following this report, 17 meat processing establishments were approached for their inclusion in a survey of the microbiological quality of raw ground beef components other than lean beef trim. Samples were subsequently recieved from 12 of those establishments.
The results if the microbiological survey are provided in this report.
