Incidence of Putrefactive Anaerobic Spores in Meat a

SUMMARY Study of the incidence of putrefactive anaerobic spores in fresh and cured pork trimmings and in canned pork luncheon meat from several commercial meat packing plants in Iowa indicated that the level of contamination was very low. The mode of putrefactive anaerobic spores in fresh pork trimmings was less than 0.18 per gram and less than 1 per gram in cured pork trimmings and canned pork luncheon meat. The maximum spore count found in any sample tested was 51 spores per gram. Spore counts on samples from different plants were similar.