How can air chilling prevent cross-contamination between poultry birds?

In poultry processing, air chilling prevents cross-contamination between birds because the carcasses are hung individually by shackles and moved through coolers using rapidly moving air rather than being submerged in a shared water bath.1

By eliminating the communal water medium used in water chilling, air chilling avoids the risk of pathogens spreading from one carcass to another during the cooling process. However, it is important to note that while this method prevents the transfer of bacteria between birds, it does not reduce the initial pathogen load on an individual bird; any pathogens present on a carcass at the start of the process will remain there. In contrast, water chilling may result in a lower overall bacterial count on a single bird because some pathogens are discarded into the water.1