The effect of acetic and lactic acid for reducing the prevalence of pathogen load on poultry.

Abstract

Meat spoilage is considered an ecological phenomenon generated by the changesthat take place in the natural meat ecosystem, through the microflora evolution under the effect ofphysical, chemical and biological factors. The main pathogens involved in outbreaks of food borneillnesses caused by poultry consumption are: Salmonella, Campylobacter, Escherichia, and Listeria.The main purpose of this study was the assessment of organic acid in order to reduce contamination ofpoultry with pathogens.The research material was represented by 12 chicken breast samples, packed in plasticcontainers, purchased from a retail stores in Romania. After the sterilization of meat samples with UVradiation, they were contaminated with a microbial inoculums of 300x106 fcu/ml (0.5 MacFarland),followed by decontamination with organic acids solutions (lactic and acetic acid, 1%, 2% 3%concentrations). The bacteriological examination for each sample was performed after theidentification treatment and counting of pathogens.The obtained results were analyzed using two way Anova test. It was established that bothorganic acids solutions caused a significant reduction of Salmonella enteritidis, Listeriamonocytogenes, Escherichia coli and Campylobacter jejuni, ranging from 1.56 log to 4.45 log,compared with controls (p <0.05). It was also found that lactic and acetic acid solutions 3%determined a 100% decontamination effect on pathogens studied, which advocates for therecommendation of using this concentration of decontaminants in order to ensure sanitation of poultrymeat.