Abstract: Foodborne pathogen cross-contamination between food-contact surfaces and processing equipment surface readily occurs during meat processing, causing health risks upon consumption of the final products. Nowadays, the risks associated with the consumption of meat products have been assessed worldwide. This paper reviews studies published between 2000 and today on foodborne pathogen cross-contamination during meat processing and the models used to study this issue. The current status of foodborne pathogen cross-contamination during meat processing and the foodborne illnesses caused by pathogen cross-contamination are presented and some models available to describe foodborne pathogen cross-contamination during meat processing and their application in microbial risk assessment are briefly outlined. We also summarize current studies on the risk assessment of sausage and ham products. Finally, some suggestions and thoughts are put forward for further studies on foodborne pathogen cross-contamination during meat processing and quantitative microbial risk assessment. Our suggestions include: make more efforts to model foodborne pathogen cross-contamination during meat processing, reinforce the interaction between risk assessment and management, establish a perfect risk monitoring system and carry out further systematic studies on quantitative microbial risk assessment.

Key words: meat products, foodborne pathogen, cross-contamination, risk assessment