National Agricultural Library

Kinetics of Thermal Destruction of Salmonella in Ground Chicken Containing trans-Cinnamaldehyde and Carvacrol

We investigated the heat resistance of an eight strain cocktail of Salmonella spp. in chicken supplemented with cinnamaldehyde (0 – 1.0%, w/w) and carvacrol (0 – 1.0%, w/w). Inoculated meat was packaged in bags which were completely immersed in a circulating water bath and held at 55 to 71C for predetermined lengths of time. The recovery medium was tryptic soy agar supplemented with 0.6% yeast extract and 1% sodium pyruvate. D-values, determined by linear regression, in chicken were 17.45, 2.89, 0.75 and 0.29 min at 55, 60, 65 and 71C, respectively (z = 9.02C). Using a survival model for non-linear survival curves, D-values in chicken ranged from 13.52 min (D1; major population) and 51.99 min (D2; heat-resistant sub-population) at 55C to 0.15 min (D1) and 1.49 min (D2) at 71C. When Salmonella cocktail was heated in chicken supplemented with 0.1 – 1.0% cinnamaldehyde or carvacrol, D-values calculated by both approaches were consistently less at all temperatures. This observation suggests that the added natural antimicrobials in chicken render Salmonella spp. more sensitive to the lethal effect of heat. Thermal death times from this study will be beneficial to the food industry in designing HACCP plans to effectively eliminate Salmonella spp. in chicken products used in this study.

Journal of Food Protection

Volume 75, Number 2

pp. 289-296