Assessment of hygiene practices in the retail poultry meat shops in Bareilly city

Abstract

Chicken meat is the most preferred meat species, and it accounts for around 50% of overall meat production in our country. Hygiene practices are one of the key factors in retail poultry meat shops that influence the overall quality and acceptability of the meat. A survey was conducted to assess the existing hygiene practices in retail chicken shops by conducting interviews of both consumers visiting the retail shops and the retailers. Results showed 71.67% of retailers agreed about the existing unhygienic retail practices of the shops. Whereas, 61.67, 11.66, 26.66, and 85% of consumers complained about dirty wooden meat-cutting logs, careless and dirty handling of meat and offal, the presence of flies over the meat surfaces, and the wet, unclean, and dirty appearance of live birds. The entire consumer base (100%) agreed about the dirty wipe cloths used by the retailers during slaughtering and cleaning of the carcass, the dirty working surface, and the dirty hands. Poor ventilation facilities and the absence of fly traps were noticed in 66.67% of retail shops. None of the butchers were found using hand gloves, headgear, etc. Intermittent handwashing was found to be practiced only by 44.44% of retailers, but none were found to use any kinds of hand sanitizer, surface sanitizer, or carcass decontaminant. Half of the retailers (50%) did not have dustbins to discard the waste and offal in their shops. The used knives and logs were found to be cleaned only once at the end of the day of work by 83.34% of retailers. The results showed a poor picture of the existing hygiene practices in the retail shops of Bareilly, which need to be intervened.