Effect of Natural Antimicrobials Against Clostridium Perfringens Outgrowth During Cooling of Turkey Breast
The demand for natural, uncured processed meats has increased dramatically, resulting in the industry needing to find alternate ingredients to inhibit the outgrowth of Clostridium perfringens. The efficacy of natural antimicrobials to inhibit C. perfringens in processed meat products is not widely known. Two natural antimicrobials were evaluated in an uncured deli-style turkey breast product (1.5% salt) to determine inhibition of C. perfringens outgrowth during 15 h of chilling and to assess consumer acceptability. Four treatments of ground turkey breast were evaluated with the following formulations: control with no antimicrobials, 1.0% fruit/spice extract only, 1.0% dried vinegar only, and a combination of 1.0% fruit/spice extract and 1.0% dried vinegar. Treatments were inoculated with a three-strain mixture of C. perfringens spores to a targeted inoculation level of 2.0 log CFU/g. Individual 11 g portions were vacuum packaged, cooked to 71°C, and chilled from 54.4°C to 26.7°C in 5 h and from 26.7°C to 7.2°C in an additional 10 h. Triplicate samples were analyzed for growth of C. perfringens every 5 h by plating on tryptose-sulfite-cycloserine agar. A consumer panel (N=96) was also conducted to evaluate product for liking and acceptability. An interaction (P0.05) between hour and treatment was observed for C. perfringens growth. The combination of fruit/spice extract and dried vinegar was found to be more effective (P