Meat Spoilage: A Critical Review of a Neglected Alteration Due to Ropy Slime Producing Bacteria

Abstract

The shelf-life of a product is the period of time during which the food retains its qualitative characteristics. Bacteria associated with meat spoilage produce unattractive odours and flavours, discolouration, gas and slime. There are several neglected alterations that deserve more attention from food business operators and competent authorities. Ropy slime is a typical alteration of the surface of vacuum and modified atmosphere packed cooked meat products, that causes major economic losses due to the increasingly sophisticated consumer requirements. This is a review article that aims at raising awareness of an old problem of new concern, in the light of new advances and trends for understanding the aetiology of the phenomenon, the origins of contamination and the prevention measures.

Recent Advances in Sensing Applications of Graphene Assemblies and Their Composites

“…Customers must rely on sell‐by dates, which are determined by producers based on a set of idealized preservers that include the way those foods are stored and transported. However, many factors effect the shelf‐life of foods including intrinsic (composition), biotic (microbial interaction), disturbance (processing), and extrinsic (storage conditions) . The sell‐by dates on the food boxes may indicate to customers that the food should be good for a period of time (e.g., 2 weeks).…”

Reduction of Microbiota in Marinated Vacuum-Packaged Poultry Breast Fillets

“…The highest TVC (7.03±0.23 log CFU/g) was on day 28 in control fillets (Table 1). Meat spoilage results in the development of off-odours and slime formation, making the meat unacceptable for human consumption (Iulietto et al, 2015;Ercolini et al, 2006;Jay, 2000). According to many studies (Nychas et al, 2008;Buses and Thompson, 2003;Hollingsworth, 2000), off-odours in chicken meat develop when TVCs approach 7.2 to 8.0 log CFU/g, so our TVCs were slightly lower than this on day 28, when we decided the off-odour and appearance of the chicken fillets were unacceptable.…”

“…These results fully coincide with Piñon et al (2015), who used ultrasound treatment combined with oregano oil marinade to study the microbiota of poultry breast meat. The anaerobic bacteria present in poultry meat are responsible for the production of large quantities of gases (H 2 and CO 2 ), which can cause deformation of the vacuum packaged meat due to their accumulation, putrid odours, the presence of exudates, extensive proteolysis and changes in pH and colour (Yang et al, 2014;Iulietto et al, 2015).…”

Research of influence of ultrasound treatment in various liquid media on the surface microflora of semifinished meat

“…Большим потенциалом в этом отношении обладает применение молочнокислых бактерий (МКБ) и обработка ультразвуком (УЗ) [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…Особый интерес представляет продуцирование некото-рыми штаммами Lactobacillus acidophilus (L. acidophilus)специфических полипептидов -бактериоцинов -различающихся по силе и спектру антибиотического действия, также рядом других свойств, что делает их перспек-тивными для использования в пищевой про-мышленности. Результат антагонистического воздействия может проявляться в виде замедления или остановки роста тест-микроба, гибели и даже лизисе его клеток [4,[6][7][8][9]14].…”