July 5, 2013

Malaysia to probe biosafety level of chicken offal

Researchers concluded that there is a need to investigate the biosafety level of chicken offal in Malaysia after quantifying Listeria in such products.

The presence of Listeria monocytogenes in chicken offal samples may indicate that chicken offal can act as a possible vehicle for the occurrence of foodborne listeriosis, according to a new study.

C.H. Kuan of Universiti Putra Malaysia and co-workers there and at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin and Kyoto University in Japan examined a total of 216 chicken offal samples (chicken liver = 72; chicken heart = 72; chicken gizzard = 72) from wet markets and hypermarkets in Selangor, Malaysia for the presence and density of Listeria monocytogenes by using a combination of the most probable number and PCR method.

In their paper in Poultry Science, they report finding the prevalence of L. monocytogenes in 216 chicken offal samples examined was 26.39%, and among the positive samples, the chicken gizzard showed the highest percentage at 33.33% compared with chicken liver (25%) and chicken heart (20.83%).

The microbial load of L. monocytogenes in chicken offal samples ranged from less than three to 93.0 most probable number per gram.