Aminopeptidase Activity by Spoilage Bacteria and Its Relationship to Microbial Load and Sensory Attributes of Poultry Legs during Aerobic Cold Storage

Abstract

The shelf life of poultry legs stored aerobically and the possible role of the aminopeptidase activity of gram-negative bacteria (p-nitroaniline test) as a predictor of poultry spoilage were evaluated on the basis of microbiological and sensory parameters. Chicken legs (n = 30) obtained immediately after evisceration in a local poultry processing plant were kept under aerobic refrigeration (4 +/- 1 degrees C) for 7 days. Microbiological (counts of aerobic bacteria and psychrotrophs) and sensory (odor, color, and general acceptability on a hedonic scale of 1 to 9) parameters and aminopeptidase activity (absorbance at 390 nm [A(390)]) determinations were performed after 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 days of storage. Aerobic plate counts of 7 log CFU/g and a score of 6 for general acceptability were used as indicators of the end point of shelf life. Strong correlations (r > or = 0.76; P < 0.001) were obtained between bacterial counts, hedonic scores, and A(390) values. Samples were judged as unacceptable (shelf-life end point) after 2 and 4 days on the basis of sensory and microbiological analyses, respectively. A(390) values of 0.52 and 0.89 (corresponding to p-nitroaniline concentrations of 6.25 and 10.7 microg/ml, respectively) are proposed as the upper limits for acceptability on the basis of sensory and microbiological determinations, respectively. However, these recommendations are based on a small set of samples, and their general application is yet to be verified.

The use of photography to perform an online consumer test on the freshness of chicken breast and the extension of shelf life

“…Spoilage microorganisms are usually identified as a major cause of chicken deterioration (Guevara‐Franco, Alonso‐Calleja, & Capita, ). In the present work, the counts of MTVC, PTVC, Enterobacteriaceae , Pseudomonas spp., and LAB are shown in Table .…”

Quality and Shelf Life of Fresh Chicken Breasts Subjected to Crust Freezing with and without Skin

“…; Guevara‐Franco et al . ). Quality, including taste, color, freshness and tenderness of chicken meat are the major components of consumer satisfaction and the major marketing emphasis by chicken processors (Kumar et al .…”

Evaluation of the Spoilage of Raw Chicken Breast Fillets Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy in Tandem with Chemometrics

“…Chicken meat is a highly perishable food; therefore, it becomes important to improve quantitative measurements of spoilage in order to monitor the quality of the meat (Guevara-Franco et al 2010;Lin et al 2004, Sahar et al 2011. This can be affected by factors such as health, age, sex, chicken carcasses condition at the time of slaughter, type of packaging, and storage conditions used (Huis in't Veld 1996;Jiménez et al 1997).…”

“…The freshness can be defined by various indicators, including microbial enumeration methods, such as total viable counts (TVC), volatile compound analysis, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), biogenic amines index, measurement of lipid oxidation (Balamatsia et al 2006(Balamatsia et al , 2007, and sensory evaluation, which is the most frequently used method for freshness evaluation of meat and meat products in industry and retail deliveries (Guevara-Franco et al 2010;Nychas et al 2008).…”

“…However, most of these methods have the disadvantage of being invasive, often expensive, time consuming, and, in the case of sensory analysis, is unsuitable for online monitoring and may not provide rapid results. Thus, it is important to develop new rapid detection methods of meat spoilage to guarantee its safety and quality (Archer 1996;Ellis et al 2002;Guevara-Franco et al 2010;Lin et al 2004;Sahar et al 2011).…”