Hot boning of intact carcasses: a procedure to avoid central nervous system self-contamination in beef and beef products

• Published in: Journal of food protection 2006-02, Vol.69 (2), p.405-411
• Main Authors: Rotterud, O.J, Helps, C.R, Hillman, T.J, Fisher, A.V, Harbour, D, Anil, H, Nesbakken, T
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adulterated products; Animals; beef; beef carcasses; Biological and medical sciences; Cattle; central nervous system; Consumer Product Safety; food contamination; Food Contamination - prevention & control; Food Handling - methods; Food industries; Food-Processing Industry - methods; Food-Processing Industry - standards; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein - analysis; Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein - isolation & purification; hot boning; Humans; Meat - analysis; Meat and meat product industries; meat products; Meat Products - analysis; Sensitivity and Specificity
• ISSN: 0362-028X; 1944-9097
• DOI: 10.4315/0362-028X-69.2.405

Compared with traditional boning of split refrigerated carcasses, hot boning of intact carcasses (the removal of meat from the skeleton prerigor) provides several commercially important cuts, may improve quality and reduce refrigeration costs, and may reduce the contamination of carcasses with central nervous system (CNS) tissue. In a comparative study of hot boning of intact and split carcasses, the CNS tissue contamination of intact carcasses was negligible (as measured with the CNS-related proteins glial fibrillary acidic protein and S-100 protein), but split carcasses were highly contaminated. The same trends were observed for dissection worktables used during the boning process. Most current boning plants have processing lines that are organized for boning carcass quarters, where the carcasses, in addition to transversal division, also are split horizontally. This part of the boning process was incorporated in the design of our study. Nine of the 18 intact carcasses were split horizontally between thoracic vertebrae 10 and 11 before they were hot boned. CNS tissue contamination was not detected on the carcass site related to this procedure. The amount of CNS tissue contamination was similar in boned cuts and minced meat from split and intact carcasses, except in the forerib. Boning of split carcasses appears to reduce CNS tissue contamination significantly to a level comparable to that of intact hot-boned carcasses.