Microbial, Instrumental Color and Sensory Characteristics of Ground Beef Processed From Beef Trimmings Treated With Potassium Lactate, Sodium Metasilicate, Peroxyacetic Acid or Acidified Sodium Chlorite as Single Antimicrobial Interventions

Abstract

Beef trimmings, inoculated with Escherichia coli (EC) and Salmonella typhimurium (ST), were treated with 3% potassium lactate (K‐L), 4% sodium metasilicate (NMS), 0.1% acidified sodium chlorite (ASC) or 0.02% peroxyacetic acid (PAA) prior to grinding. The ground beef packages were sampled at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 7 days of simulated retail display. All treatments reduced (P < 0.05) EC, coliforms and aerobic plate counts up to and some in excess of 1 log and ST count ≥ 1.5 logs. Sensory panelists found ground beef from all treatments to generally be similar (P > 0.05) to the control in odor and similar (P > 0.05) in color for the K‐L and NMS treatments during initial display. Instrumental color results indicated that K‐L, NMS and PAA were similar (P > 0.05) in redness (a*) to the control. These findings indicated that use of tested antimicrobial agents can reduce microbial numbers with little impact on sensory odor and color characteristics. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Although antimicrobial interventions have shown promising results in decontaminating meat products, there are only a limited number of antimicrobial products that can be used without causing adverse effects on quality characteristics of the final product. Consumers often discriminate against discolored meat products, and thus any deleterious effects on color and other quality attributes in decontaminated products will lead to a negative economic impact. The outcome of this research will provide information on selection of antimicrobial agents that will maximize ground beef safety without causing deleterious effects on quality attributes. Application of suitable antimicrobial interventions at the end of a production line will be advantageous to supply ground beef with increased shelf‐life and decreased or no risk for illnesses caused by pathogens.

Product Safety and Color Characteristics of Ground Beef Processed From Beef Trimmings Treated With Peroxyacetic Acid Alone or Followed by Novel Organic Acids

“…The cocktail mixture of E.coli (EC) and Salmonella (SA) at10 5 CFU/g was incorporated into the trimming and mixed to acquire an even inoculum distribution on the beef trimmings. Then, the inoculated trimmings were separated into 1.5 kg batches (replicate/treatment) and left overnight at 4C to allow bacterial attachment (Pohlman et al, 2009;2002a;2002b).…”

“…The ground beef packages were displayed under retail condition (4°C; 1,630 lx of deluxe warm white fluorescent lighting; Phillips Inc., Somerset, USA) and sampled on day 0, 1, 2, 3, and 7 day of display for microbial analysis and CIE L*, a* and b* and reflectance measurements. The pH of ground beef was monitored (homogenized mixture of 1.8 g of ground beef and 18 ml of distilled water; (Quilo et al, 2009) at 27 °C, using a Orion pH meter with Orion Ross ultra electrode (Fisher Scientific, Houston, USA) at day 0, 1, 2, 3, and 7 days of display (Pohlman et al, 2009;2002a;2002b).…”

“…Subsequently, serial 10-fold dilutions were made and duplicate spread plated (SA counts on Salmonella shigella agar (DIFCO, Detroit, USA), aerobic plate count (APC), and E. coli (EC) / coliform (CO) counts on Petrifilm ® (3M, St. Paul, USA). The EC, APC and ST counts were read after 48 h incubation at 37 °C (VWR Scientific, West Chester, USA) whereas coliform plates were read after 24 h (Pohlman et al, 2009;2002a;2002b).…”

“…Peroxyacetic acid, a GRAS equilibrium mixture of hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid, is found to be effective against a variety of pathogenic and spoilage organisms in meat decontamination Although acetic acid, citric acid, lactic acid have been used in meat decontamination interventions, it would be of value to consider other food grade organic acids which are general metabolic intermediates and have no known toxic health effects at concentrations potential to control or inhibit pathogenic bacteria in ground beef. In recent years, much research specified the importance of antimicrobial interventions on beef trimmings as a pre-grinding treatment in controlling microbial populations in ground beef (Pohlman et al, 2009;2002a;2002b;Quilo et al, 2010). In addition, scientific evidence support that multiple hurdles approach may obtain greater reduction of microbial populations than using a single intervention (Pohlman et al, 2009;2002a;2002b).…”

“…In recent years, much research specified the importance of antimicrobial interventions on beef trimmings as a pre-grinding treatment in controlling microbial populations in ground beef (Pohlman et al, 2009;2002a;2002b;Quilo et al, 2010). In addition, scientific evidence support that multiple hurdles approach may obtain greater reduction of microbial populations than using a single intervention (Pohlman et al, 2009;2002a;2002b). The spray application via electrostatic atomization of liquid is an emerging technology that has the potential to be used in beef antimicrobial decontamination interventions as it has the ability to produce very even and uniform antimicrobial liquid coating applications (AbuAli and Barringer 2005).…”