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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Microbial and Chemical Food Safety » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #302847
Title: Antimicrobial polylactic acid packaging films against Listeria and Salmonella in culture medium and on ready-to-eat meat

Author
item GUO, MINGMING - Jiangnan University
item Jin, Zhonglin
item YANG, RUIJIN - Jiangnan University

Submitted to: Food and Bioprocess Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/16/2014
Publication Date: 5/4/2014
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/58946
Citation: Guo, M., Jin, Z.T., Yang, R. 2014. Antimicrobial polylactic acid packaging films against Listeria and Salmonella in culture medium and on ready-to-eat meat. Food and Bioprocess Technology. DOI:10.1007/s11947-014-1322-x.

Interpretive Summary: The contamination of ready-to-eat (RTE) meat with Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella occurs mainly at post-processing, and consumption of these products without further heating is common. In this study, antimicrobial films incorporating chitosan, organic acids and lauric arginate ester reduced 99.9 percent of Listeria and 99 percent of Salmonella on RTE meat and inhibit their growth over 5 weeks at 10 degree C. Antimicrobial food packaging provides an effective intervention to kill or inhibit the growth of those foodborne pathogens on RTE meat products.

Technical Abstract: The contamination of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. in ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products has been a concern for the meat industry. In this study, edible chitosan-acid solutions incorporating lauric arginate ester (LAE), sodium lactate (NaL) and sorbic acid (SA) alone or in combinations were developed and coated on polylactic acid (PLA) packaging films. Antimicrobial effects of coated PLA films on the growth of L. innocua, L. monocytogenes and S. Typhimurium in a culture medium (tryptic soy broth, TSB) and on the surface of meat samples were investigated. Antimicrobial PLA films containing 1.94 mg per sq. cm of chitosan and 1.94 µg per sq. cm of LAE were the most effective against both Listeria and Salmonella in TSB and reduced them to undetectable level (less than 0.69 log CFU/ml). The same PLA films with LAE significantly (p greater than 0.05) reduced the growth of L. innocua, L. monocytogenes and S. Typhimurium on RTE meat during 3 and 5 weeks’ storage at 10 degree C, achieving 2-3 log reduction of Listeria and 1- 1.5 log reduction of Salmonella as compared with controls. PLA films coated with 1.94 mg per sq. cm of chitosan, 0.78 mg per sq. cm of NaL and 0.12 mg per sq. cm SA significantly reduced the growth of L. innocua but were less effective against Salmonella. The combination of NaL (0.78 mg per sq. cm) and SA (0.12 mg per sq. cm) with LAE (1.94 ug per sq. cm) did not generate additional or synergetic antimicrobial effect against Listeria or Salmonella on meat surface. L. innocua had a similar sensitivity to the film treatments as L. monocytogenes, suggesting that L. innocua may be used as a surrogate of L. monocytogenes for further scale up and validation studies. The film treatments were more effective against the microorganisms in TSB culture medium than in RTE meat, which suggests that in-vivo studies are a necessary step to develop antimicrobial packaging for applications in foods.