Micro-organisms are present throughout the meat processing chain, from raw materials until finished product. Industrial quality programs check for contamination in raw materials and final products to ensure the safety of consumer products; for this reason, the use of alternative methods instead of the conventional methods used in routine diagnostic laboratories is necessary to obtain reliable results in the shortest time possible. Samples of pig carcasses were collected in a slaughterhouse with Federal Inspection in the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Mesophilic micro-organisms, Enterobacteriaceae and Escherichia coli were evaluated and tests performed by alternative methods, TEMPO®, Petrifilm™, and the conventional method of counting micro-organisms in Petri dishes. After statistical analysis, the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) showed a strong correlation up to 0.70 between the methodologies used for the enumeration of Enterobacteriaceae and mesophilic micro-organisms, show a moderate correlation between 0.30 to 0.70, for the diagnosis of Escherichia coli. The use of alternative methods to replace the conventional method can be recommended for diagnosis of Escherichiacoli, Enterobacteriaceae and mesophilic micro-organisms, because there was consistency between the results and the speed was increased by the alternative methodologies benefiting the pork industry.
methods; swine carcasses; micro-organisms
