Carcasses were inoculated with bacteria to increase
the likelihood of seeing subtle differences due to
washing. Researchers evaluating the effects of chlorinated
spray washing (200 ppm) on the recovery of bacteria from
beef carcasses have indicated that washing did not cause
an additional reduction in the bacterial load because the
initial levels of bacteria were too low (Stevenson et al.,
1978). By inoculating carcasses, levels of bacteria were
increased by 2 to 3 log units for total aerobic bacteria, E.
coli, and Campylobacter, and by 4 log units for Salmonella
(Table 2).