Meat and meat products are the main vehicles of foodborne diseases in humans caused by pathogens such as
Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, verotoxigenic Escherichia coli
(VTEC) and Staphylococcus aureus. In order to prioritise research on those microbial hazards, a meta-analysis
study was conducted to summarise available information on the presence of such pathogens in meats produced
in Portugal. By using a logit-transformed proportion as effect size parameterisation, a number of multilevel
random-effectmeta-analysismodelswere fitted to estimatemean occurrence rates of pathogens, and to compare
them among meat categories (i.e., bovine meat, broiler meat, pork, minced beef and minced pork), and among
meat product categories (i.e., intended to be eaten cooked, to be eaten raw and cured meats). The mean occurrence
rate of Campylobacter in Portuguese broiler meat (40%; 95% CI: 22.0–61.4%) was about ten times higher
than that of Salmonella (4.0%; 95% CI: 1.4–10.8%); although these levels were comparable to current EU ranges.
Nevertheless, in the other meat categories, the meta-analysed incidences of Salmonella were slightly to moderately
higher than EU averages. A semi-quantitative risk ranking of pathogens in Portuguese-produced pork pointed
Salmonella spp. as critical (with a mean occurrence of 12.6%; 95% CI: 8.0–19.3%), and Y. enterocolitica as high
(6.8%; 95% CI: 2.2–19.3%). In the case of the Portuguesemeat products, the non-compliance to EUmicrobiological
criteria for L. monocytogenes (8.8%; 95% CI: 6.5–11.8%) and Salmonella spp. (9.7%; 95% CI: 7.0–13.4%) at sample
units level, in the categories ‘intended to be eaten cooked’ and ‘to be eaten raw’, were considerably higher
than EU levels for ready-to-eat products in comparable categories. S. aureuswas the pathogen of greatest concern
given its high occurrence (22.6%; 95% CI: 15.4–31.8%) inmeat products. These results emphasised the necessity of
Portuguese food safety agencies to take monitoring, and training actions for the maintenance of good hygiene
practices during the production of the great variety of traditional meat products. This meta-analysis study also
highlighted important gaps of knowledge, and may assist food safety authorities in the prioritisation of microbiological
hazards, and the implementation of essential food safety assurance systems at primary production.
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT) through the award of a five-year Investigator Fellowship (IF) in
the mode of Development Grants (IF/00570).
