Treatment of animal carcasses

Abstract

Described is a method of sanitizing animal carcasses using aqueous streams having an antimicrobial composition added to the stream. Preferably, the antimicrobial composition includes a mixture of one or more carboxylic acids having up to 18 carbon atoms and one or more peroxycarboxylic acids having up to 12 carbon atoms, preferably a mixture of a C 2 -C 4 peroxycarboxylic acid and a C 8 -C 12 peroxycarboxylic acid. Also described is a novel antimicrobial composition adapted for sanitizing animal carcasses containing a mixture of one or more C 2 -C 4 peroxycarboxylic acids and one or more C 8 -C 12 peroxycarboxylic acids and an alpha-hydroxy mono- or dicarboxylic acid.

1 . A method of treating an animal carcass to reduce a microbial population in resulting cut meat, the method comprising the steps of:
 (a) treating said carcass with an antimicrobial composition comprising:
 (i) an effective antimicrobial amount comprising at least 2 ppm of one or more mono- or di-peroxycarboxylic acids having up to 12 carbon atoms; and 
 (ii) an effective antimicrobial amount comprising at least 20 ppm of one or more carboxylic acids having up to 18 carbon atoms; and 
   (b) reducing the microbial population.