Relationship Between Shrimp Processing and Final Product Microbiological Quality Mara GEORGESCU 1a *; C. SAVU 1a ; Al. A. DOBREA(POPESCU) 1b 1) University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Medicine College, 011464 – Bucharest, Bulevardul Mărăşti nr. 59, Romania, a) Department of Animal Productions and Public Health; b) PhD student, *Cor- responding author, e-mail: dr_georgescu_mara@yahoo.com Bulletin UASVM Veterinary Medicine 71 (1) / 2014, 66-67 Print ISSN 1843-5270; Electronic ISSN 1843-5378 Abstract Research concerning the bacteriological quality of seafood has been a major preoccupation for the past few decades and is still intensively carried out worldwide. The objectives of this study were to assess the microbiological quality of various shrimp products marketed in Romania and to establish the existence of a correlation between the level of contamination and the type of processing used in the manufacture of each type of product. Peeling, cooking and tail-removing were investigated in terms of technological processes to be further analyzed for correlation with the final microbiological quality. Samples were investigated for coliforms, E.coli, Salmonella spp., coagulase-positive staphylococci, Clostridium spp., Listeria monocytogenes and aerobic plate count (APC). The overall contamination of shrimp samples was less pronounced in cooked, peeled, tail-on samples, than in raw, unpeeled and tail- off products. Statistically significant associations were only found between coliforms’ counts and the use of peeling, cooking and removing of the tail in the technological process. Coliforms contamination was shown to be influenced by certain processing technologies. Keywords statistical significance, CHI square test, shrimp, processing, microbiological quality INTRODUCTION Research concerning the bacteriological qua- lity of seafood has been a major preoccupation for the past few decades and is still intensively carried out worldwide, as the increasing consumption of such products raises the significance and the risk to public health. The objectives of this study were to assess the microbiological quality of various shrimp products marketed in Romania and to establish the existence of a correlation between the level of contamination and the type of processing used in the manufacture of each type of product. MATERIALS AND METHODS Six different types of imported shrimp pro- ducts (703 samples) were collected from different retailers in Bucharest, Ploiesti, Constanţa and Braşov, as follows: whole cooked shrimp (97 sam- ples), peeled, tail-off, undeveined, raw shrimp (130 samples), peeled, tail-off, undeveined, cooked shrimp (125 samples), unpeeled, tail- on, raw shrimp (112 samples), peeled, tail-on, deveined, cooked shrimp (89 samples), peeled, deveined, raw shrimp (150 samples). Samples were investigated in terms of coliforms, E.coli, Salmonella spp., coagulase-positive staphylococci, Clostridium spp., Listeria monocytogenes and aerobic plate count (APC). The microbial hazard laboratory analysis was performed according to the national standards (SR ISO 4831/2009; SR ISO 7251/96; SR EN ISO 6888/3/2006; SR EN ISO 6579/AC/2006; SR ISO 4833/2003; SR ISO 11290-1/2000). Data analysis was performed using the chi-square statistical test of significance (DeCoster, 2006).