Assessment of hygiene practices followed by retailers and butchers of small slaughtering premises in Jammu city.
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Date
2021-08-13
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Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Jammu (J&K)
Abstract
In the present investigation, 30 butchers studied across the Jammu city. All the butchers were male, mostly in the age group of 16-45 years. Thirty seven percent of the butchers had acquired higher secondary qualification and most of the butchers are involved in the slaughtering profession for less than 5 years. Majority of the butchers were trained by relatives and friends (73%). The infrastructure of the 30 retail shops/outlets and slaughtering premises were studied. Sixty seven percent retail shops/outlets and slaughtering premises were in the market area and most of them (63%) were small structured. Majority of the shops were operational with proper licensing from the municipal corporation authorities of the Jammu city. Most of the butchers (100%) were found using soaps and detergents (10%) for hand sanitization. Generally, butchers gave importance to selection of healthy birds. None of butchers in the present study were aware of history of flock.
Thirty poultry meat samples collected from different locations of Jammu city were analysed to determine the bacteriological quality. The mean counts of SPC CC, SAC and EFC were found 6.59±0.13,4.87±0.19,3.79±0.07 and 3.88±0.81 log10cfu/gm, respectively. The analysis of variance indicated that all the 10 areas of Jammu city from where the meat samples were collected differed significantly for SPC and EFC whereas other counts viz., CC and SAC were at par with each other for the locations under study. In conclusion, the microbiological quality of meat in Jammu city is not satisfactory. It is therefore, suggested that the raw meat should be handled with appropriate hygienic measures and continuous microbial monitoring to safeguard the health of consumers.