First evaluation of alkylpyrazine application as a novel method to decrease microbial contaminations in processed meat products

Matthias Schöck,Tomislav Cernava,Gabriele Berg,Stefan Liebminger

doi:10.1186/s13568-018-0583-6

Matthias Schöck, Tomislav Cernava + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13568-018-0583-6

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Abstract

Every year about 20% of the globally produced meat gets lost due to microbial spoilage. Nevertheless, the demand for processed meat is constantly rising and producers are searching for novel strategies to reduce microbial contaminations in their products. In the present study, we evaluated the applicability of alkylpyrazines as antimicrobial agents. These fragrant molecules naturally occur in different vegetables, fruits, roasted nut and meat. Several pyrazine derivatives are readily added to processed products for flavoring purposes in the food industry. To evaluate their potential for application, two derivatives were tested for their antimicrobial activity against meat-associated bacterial contaminants and chicken meat as a whole. Isolates assigned to Carnobacteriaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Listeriaceae, and Moraxellaceae were substantially inhibited in the pilot tests. Moreover, treatments of pyrazine-susceptible isolates resulted in 4-log reductions in bacterial cell counts. The effect was more pronounced when the model contaminants were exposed to higher concentrations of 5-isobutyl-2,3-dimethylpyrazine. In a first small-scale application with processed chicken meat, it was demonstrated that the antimicrobial effects of 2-isobutyl-3-methylpyrazine can be improved by additionally lowering the water activity on the meat surface when maltodextrin is used as a carrier substance. At low pyrazine dosages, the number of viable bacteria was decreased up to 95% in comparison to the corresponding controls. A complementary imaging method that was developed to assess the efficacy on the product, reinforced the applicability of this two-component system.

Highlights

Meat is an important energy, protein, and micronutrient source in the human diet
In order to find suitable alternatives for conventional food preservatives, we focused on microbial volatile organic compounds, which are mediators of various interactions in nature (Effmert et al 2012; Kanchiswamy et al 2015)
Antimicrobial efficiency tests with 5‐isobutyl‐2,3‐dimethylpyrazine In vitro tests with isolated microorganisms were performed in order to access the antimicrobial activity of alkylpyrazines in combination with different bacterial meat contaminants

Summary

Introduction

Meat is an important energy, protein, and micronutrient source in the human diet. Due to population growth, and adaption of developing countries, especially China, to the western civilization, the meat demand is steadily increasing (OECD-FAO 2017). To preserve meat, which provides favorable growth condition for different microorganisms, our ancestors invented different techniques like salting, drying, smoking, fermentation and canning (Dave and Ghaly 2011). All of these traditional techniques extent the shelf life of meat and meat products but underlie the disadvantage that they change composition, appearance, tenderness, flavor, juiciness and nutritive value of the treated meat. Nowadays other techniques like refrigeration, ionizing radiation, chemical preservation, high hydrostatic pressure and packaging are more common (Dave and Ghaly 2011; Zhou et al 2010) They provide the means for better conservation of the physical and chemical properties of fresh meat. There is still a great demand for efficient and environmentally friendly strategies

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