Chemical Decontamination of Campylobacter jejuni on Chicken Skin and Meat

This study evaluated the effectiveness of 11 chemical compounds to reduce Campylobacter jejuni on chicken skin and meat samples dipped in chemical solutions. Treatment of skin samples for 1 min using tartaric acid (2%) and caprylic acid sodium salt (5%) caused reductions of C. jejuni NCTC11168, which were not significantly different from the reduction obtained by sterile water (0.95 log). Statistically larger reductions (1.57 to 3.81 log) were caused by formic acid (2%), lactic acid (2.5%), trisodium phosphate (10%), capric acid sodium salt (5%), grapefruit seed extract (1.6%), and chlorhexidine diacetate salt hydrate (1%). The most effective compounds were cetylpyridinium chloride (0.5%) and benzalkonium chloride (1%) (>4.2 log). However, when these treated samples were stored for 24 h at 5°C, cetylpyridinium chloride, benzalkonium chloride, and grapefruit seed extract were less effective, indicating that some cells may recover after a 1-min treatment with these chemicals. An increase in treatment time to 15 min resulted in higher effectiveness of trisodium phosphate and formic acid. Interestingly, when reduction of the C. jejuni population was compared on chicken skin and meat, sterile water and lactic acid caused considerably larger reductions on skin than on meat, whereas the opposite was seen for caprylic acid sodium salt. In conclusion, this study has identified chemicals with substantial reduction effects on C. jejuni. The analysis has further emphasized that treatment time and food matrix affect the outcome in an unpredictable manner and, therefore, detailed studies are needed to evaluate the reduction effectiveness of chemicals.