The Microbiological Condition of Canadian Beef Steaks Offered for Retail Sale in Canada

Steaks of 4 types collected from 113 retails stores in 4 Canadian cities were frozen for storage. Swab samples collected from approximately 100 cm2 of each of 598 thawed steaks were processed for enumeration of bacteria. The fraction of steaks from which total aerobic counts (AER), psychrotrophs (PSY), lactic acid bacteria (LAB), pseudomonads(PSE) and Brochothrix thermosphacta (BRO) were not recovered at > 2 log cfu/100 cm2 were 3, 12, 8, 25 and 51%, respectively. The fractions of steaks from which coliforms (COL) and Escherichia coli (ECO) were not recovered at > 0 log cfu/ 100 cm2 were 56 and 92%, respectively. The log number per 100 cm2 recovered from > 90% of steaks were < 6 for AER, PSY and LAB, < 5 for PSE, <4 for BRO, and < 2 for COL. The microbiological conditions of groups of steaks of different types, from different cities or from different groups of stores were not substantially different.