Microbial Quality of Australian Offal

Summary

Offal produced from Australian red meat is valued at approximately $363 million/year, however it does face market challenges regarding consumer acceptance.

To address possible market access restrictions and to open new markets for offal, MLA commissioned a national baseline study to assess and document the microbial quality of chilled and frozen Australian red meat offal.

The results from this project demonstrate that the microbial quality of most Australian offal is below the maximum residue levels required for food safety, with bacteria levels less than those reported in offal products from other countries.

Objectives

This study estimated the occurrence and amount of bacteria in a range of Australian red meat offal by sampling processing plants to determine the microbial quality of their products.

Key findings

• The occurrence and amount of bacteria on offal varied between the type of animal, the offal products and the processing plant.
• Comparing Australia to other offal markets can be difficult as there is a lack of internationally-published data, however, of the countries with published data, Australia had the lowest microbial load in offal products.
• There was little difference in the bacterial quality of fresh and frozen offal.
• Salmonella was not detected in lamb and sheep offal, although low amounts were detected in some beef offal products.

Benefits to industry

The results of this project have provided an opportunity to gain better market access for products made from Australian red meat offal.

MLA action

There is currently a gap in data available about offal, so MLA is in the process of publishing key findings of this project to an international scientific journal to provide reference data for future market enquiries.