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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fayetteville, Arkansas » Poultry Production and Product Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #339691
Research Project: Antibiotic Alternatives for Controlling Foodborne Pathogens and Disease in Poultry

Location: Poultry Production and Product Safety Research

Title: A carvacrol wash and/or a chitosan based coating reduced Campylobacter jejuni on chicken wingettes

Author
item SHRESTHA, SANDIP - University Of Arkansas
item UPADHYAY, ABHINAV - University Of Arkansas
item ARSI, KOMALA - University Of Arkansas
item WAGLE, BASANTA - University Of Arkansas
item VENKITANARAUANAN, KUMAR - University Of Connecticut
item Donoghue, Ann - Annie
item DONOGHUE, DAN - University Of Arkansas

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2017
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of foodborne disease in humans, largely associated with consumption of contaminated poultry and poultry products. With increasing consumer demand for natural and minimally processed foods, the use of Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status plant derived compounds is gaining more attention as natural antimicrobials for improving food safety. Carvacrol (CR; obtained from oregano oil) is one such phytochemical that has shown significant antimicrobial efficacy against various foodborne pathogens. The present study evaluated the efficacy of CR as an antimicrobial dip or chitosan (CH; binding agent from chitin) based coating treatment for reducing C. jejuni on chicken wingettes. In addition, the effect of CR and CH treatments on meat color was analyzed using Chroma meter (CR 400/410, Konica Minolta, NJ, USA). In two separate trials, 225 wingettes were treated with CR (0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%) alone or in combination with CH (2%). Each wingette was inoculated with a cocktail of four wild strains of C. jejuni (approximately 7.5 log10 CFU/wingette) with an attachment time of 30 mins. Following 1 min of dipping/coating with aforementioned treatments, wingettes were air dried (1 h) and sampled at 0, 1, 3, 5 and 7 days of refrigerated storage for C. jejuni counts (n=5 wingettes/treatment/time point). The data were analyzed by ANOVA using MIXED procedure of SAS 9.3 and expressed as LSMEANS with differences considered significant at P<0.05. Results showed that 1% CR, or the combination of either 0.25%, 0.5% or 1% CR with CH significantly reduced C. jejuni from day 0 through day 7 by up to 2.5 log10 CFU/sample. Moreover, none of the treatment exerted any significant effect on wingette color (P<0.05). The results suggest that CR could potentially be used as a natural antimicrobial to control C. jejuni in post-harvest poultry. Follow up mechanistic analysis to delineate the mechanism of action of CR on C. jejuni is currently underway using cell culture and gene expression analysis.