INHIBITION OF Salmonella ON POULTRY AS INFLUENCED BY FLASH PASTEURIZATION, LACTIC ACID BUFFERED SYSTEM AND MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING.

The effect of the treatment with flash pasteurization (FP) for 15 seconds; decontamination with 10% lactic acid buffered system pH3 (LABS); Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) (90% CO₂ + 10% O₂); combination of  FP+LABS; FP+MAP; LABS+MAP and finally FP+LABS+MAP on Salmonella typhimurium of chicken legs stored at 5°C was investigated. The initial artificial contamination level of Salmonella typhimurium on the chicken legs surface was 4.76 log₁₀ cfu/cm² of skin.  A reduction of 2.42 and 2.65 log10 cfu/cm² units of Salmonella typhimurium were obtained by the treatments with  flash pasteurization (FP) and 10% lactic acid buffer system pH3 (LABS), respectively as compared with  untreated sample. Treatment with;  FP+LABS+ MAP and  LABS+ MAP eliminated 4.76log₁₀ cfu/cm² of   Salmonella typhimurium from poultry within 10 and 14days of storage at 5 °C, respectively. Such elimination would improve the safety of poultry. After 6, 8 and 10 days of storage at 5 °C , there was significant decrease (P<0.05) in the log₁₀ cfu/cm² of Salmonella typhimurium for all samples treated with LABS+ MAP compared with legs only packed in modified atmosphere MAP. Likewise a similar significant decrease (P<0.05) was observed between samples treated with FP+ MAP and legs only packed in modified atmosphere MAP.  This can be explained by a synergistic effect between lactic acid buffer system pH3 (LABS) and MAP in one hand; and synergistic effect between flash pasteurization (FP) and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) on the other hand. Results also revealed that FP+MAP efficacy against Salmonella typhimurium was enhanced by 10% lactic acid buffer system (LABS). Results showed that the total viable bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, and lactic acid bacteria were inhibited by all treatments used as compared with the untreated sample. The buffering capacity of the buffered system LABS seemed to be sufficient to maintain a low pH of the skin during storage at 5°C. These synergistic effects between FP; LABS and MAP would improve the safety against pathogenic bacteria on fresh poultry during storage at 5°C.