Bacterial community assessed by utilization of single carbon sources in broiler ground meat after treatment with an antioxidant, carnosine, and cold plasma

Authors: Yeh, Hung-Yueh; Line, John; Hinton Jr, Arthur; GAO, YUE - Nanjing Agricultural University; Zhuang, Hong

Submitted to: Journal of Food Protection
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/29/2020
Publication Date: 11/1/2020
Citation: Yeh, H., Line, J.E., Hinton Jr, A., Gao, Y., Zhuang, H. 2020. Bacterial community assessed by utilization of single carbon sources in broiler ground meat after treatment with an antioxidant, carnosine, and cold plasma. Journal of Food Protection, 83 (11): 1967–1973. https://doi.org/10.4315/JFP-20-063.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4315/JFP-20-063

Interpretive Summary: Contaminated poultry meat is a major source of human foodborne illnesses. Many interventions have been developed to reduce and/or eliminate human foodborne pathogens in poultry products; however, treatments with cold plasma or carnosine or a combination of both interventions have not been extensively investigated. In this short note, the bacterial microflora of poultry meat samples after treatments with cold plasma and carnosine were characterized with EcoPlates™ in the OmniLog® system. The plates were incubated at 25 oC for seven days in the OmniLog® chamber, and bacterial growth was monitored by recording formazan production every 30 minutes at OD590 nm. The kinetics of three phases of the bacterial growth patterns followed the Gompertz sigmoidal model, but with different inflection times and asymptotes at the log phase and the stationary phase, respectively. Results indicated that treating poultry meat samples with cold plasma technology and carnosine could inhibit growth of the bacteria in the treated meat samples. Of 31 chemicals tested, phenylethylamine,a-D-lactose, D,L-a-glycerol phosphate, 2-hydroxybenzoic acid, y-hydroxybutyric acid, a-ketobutyric acid or D-malic acid could not be metabolized by bacteria in the meat samples. Future research is required to determine whether these seven chemicals that inhibit growth of bacteria from the meat samples can be used as food preservatives and whether the bacterial flora of the treated meat can be used as an indicator of the effectiveness of cold plasma, carnosine, or both as food preservation techniques.

Technical Abstract: Contaminated poultry meat is a major source of human foodborne illnesses. Many interventions have been developed to reduce and/or eliminate human foodborne pathogens in poultry products; however, treatments with cold plasma or carnosine or a combination of both interventions have not been extensively investigated. In this communication, the bacterial microflora of poultry meat samples after treatments with cold plasma and carnosine were characterized with EcoPlates™ in the OmniLog® system. The plates were incubated at 25 oC for seven days in the OmniLog® chamber, and bacterial growth was monitored by recording formazan production every 30 minutes at OD590 nm. The kinetics of lag, log and stationary phases of the bacterial growth patterns followed the Gompertz sigmoidal model, but with different inflection times and asymptotes at the log phase and the stationary phase, respectively. Results indicated that treating poultry meat samples with cold plasma technology and carnosine could inhibit growth of the bacteria in the treated meat samples. Of 31 chemicals tested, phenylethylamine, a-D-lactose, D,L-a-glycerol phosphate, 2-hydroxybenzoic acid, y-hydroxybutyric acid, a-ketobutyric acid or D-malic acid could not be metabolized by bacteria in the meat samples. Future research is required to determine whether these seven chemicals that inhibit growth of bacteria from the meat samples can be used as food preservatives for extending shelf-life of meats, and whether the metabolic profile of bacterial flora of the meat treated with cold plasma and carnosine can serve as an indicator of effectiveness of the treatment in extending the shelf-life of meats.