| Summary: | ABSTRACT Self-monitoring procedures are adopted by food industries to ensure the quality and safety of final products, considering hygiene and processing criteria. This study aimed to evaluate contamination in chicken processing, considering the microbiological criteria proposed by self-monitoring systems. Environmental samples from reception, slaughtering and processing were collected from three chicken slaughterhouses (Sl1, Sl2, Sl3), and subjected to microbiological analysis to enumerate hygiene indicators microorganisms: mesophilic aerobes, enterobacteriaceae, coliforms and Escherichia coli. The obtained counts were converted to log10, compared by ANOVA (p<0.05) and self-monitoring microbiological criteria for each slaughterhouse were considered. In reception, the mean counts of hygiene indicator microorganisms in Sl3 were significantly higher than mean counts observed in Sl1 and Sl2 (p<0.05). During slaughtering, the chilling was enough to decrease the mean counts of all hygiene indicator microorganisms in Sl1, Sl2 and Sl3 (p<0.05). Based on self-monitoring criteria, in the first stages of slaughtering the facilities presented higher frequencies of chicken carcasses with counts above their respective reference values. Sl02 presented carcasses with higher counts after final washing, resulting in environmental samples with higher counts when compared to Sl1 and Sl3 (p<0.05). Even considering the high counts observed in the initial steps of chicken processing and slaughtering, the results indicated the efficacy of hygienic procedures in providing chicken carcasses and cuts with low microbiological contamination. Self-monitoring criteria supported these results, and the high levels of microbial contamination during the initial steps of slaughtering require subsequent antimicrobial hygienic procedures.
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