An assessment of the microbial quality of “döner kebab” during cold storage: Effects of different packaging methods and microwave heating before consumption

AbstractIn the current study, d öner kebabs packed with different packaging methods (air packaging [AP], modified atmosphere packaging [MAP], vacuum packaging [VP] and sous vide packaging [SVP]) were evaluated for their microbial quality during storage at 4 °C. In addition, the effect of microwave heating before consumption on t he microbial quality of döner kebabs was also investigated. Total mesophilic aerobic bacteria and total psycrophilic aerobic bacteria counts of döner kebabs increased during storage and reached to 6.48, 8.27, 8.15, 3.96 and 5.58, 8.53, 8.63,<1.00 log cfu/g in AP (9th day), MAP (29th day), VP (29th day) and SVP (99th day) groups, respectively. Although coliform,Escherichia coli andStaphylococcus aureus counts of d öner kebabs were below 3 MPN/g, 3 MPN/g, 2 log cfu/g in all groups, respectively; noClostridium perfringens andListeria monocytogenes was detected in any of the groups during storage. Microwave heating was found effective on reducing the microbial load of d öner kebabs. It was concluded that without any additional preservation techniques, the SVP prolonged the shelf life of döner kebabs more than 20, 6, and 5 times comparing to AP, MAP, and VP groups, respectively.Practical applicationsD öner kebab is a meat product which is very convenient for microbial growth due to its nutritional and chemical composition. Döner kebab that cannot be sold immediately after production causes high economic losses since the shelf life of döner keb...
Source: Journal of Food Safety - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research