Establishment of Tolerance Intervals in Order to Control Total Coliforms in the Beef Deboning Area

Abstract

To guarantee product safety, food companies must develop strategies of control of cross contamination, which promote the durability of the food and sustaining of public health. Tolerance intervals were implemented through the analysis of environments, surfaces and food handlers, for total coliform count in the deboning area, which were considered of direct implication to the microbiological quality of the product, until completing ten repetitions for each one. The information obtained was submitted to statistical processing in order to eliminate atypical data, and deleted data were replaced by others, originating of subsequent samplings, that were within of the normality. Finally, from data obtained, tolerance intervals were established for the adoption of specific actions in each type of analysis, when microbiological limits are exceeded, as a complementary transversal action to avoid cross contamination and contribute to product safety.