Effect of Chlorination in the Final Washer on Bacterial Counts of Broiler Chicken Carcasses

INTRODUCTION CHLORINATION of an entire poultry processing plant water system at 10, 20 and 45 parts per million chlorine was studied by Drewniak et al. (1954). Twenty parts per million chlorine significantly reduced the bacterial load on chicken carcasses prior to chilling. These results were confirmed by Patterson (1958), who sampled frozen birds produced in a plant using different levels of chlorination in the entire water supply. Without special precaution, however, long-term chlorination at this level can corrode steel, stainless steel, and brass currently used in poultry plant plumbing systems (Mercer and Somers, 1957). This factor makes whole-plant chlorination at 20 parts per million impractical in many areas without installing either deionizing systems to remove minerals and/or pH adjustment using sodium hydroxide. Ranken et al. (1965) and Barnes (1965) indicated that chlorination at 200 parts per million in the slush ice chilling of birds extends shelf-life slightly and reduces the…