Antimicrobial effects of pyruvic and succinic acids on Salmonella survival in ground chicken

This study was designed to assess the antimicrobial effect of pyruvic or succinic acid with oregano essential oil on Salmonella survival, composition of natural microflora, and resultant ground meat quality. Various concentrations of pyruvic (PA) and succinic acids (SA) with 0.5% essential oil (EO) were applied as immersion treatments for broiler breast meat. Salmonella Typhimurium was inoculated on breast meat to evaluate its post-treatment reduction in ground meat. For assessing impact of antimicrobial treatments on ground product, non-inoculated meat was treated with antimicrobials, ground, and stored for retail display in foam trays. Treated ground product was further evaluated for natural microbial counts, instrumental color, pH, and expressible moisture over 8 days of retail display. A combination of 3 g/100 ml SS + 0.5 ml/100 ml EO showed a maximum reduction of 1.52 log CFU/g for Salmonella on ground chicken. The same treatment (3 g/100 ml SS + 0.5 ml/100 ml EO) resulted in reduction of bacterial population ca. 1.2 log CFU/g aerobic plate count and lower pH and L* variation over the 8 d of storage. (P < 0.05) than all other treatments. Results obtained from this study indicate that broiler meat treatment with PA or SA with EO will provide effective reduction of Salmonella and improved raw ground meat quality.