Psychrophilic Spoilage Bacteria of Poultry

Abstract

SUMMARY The organisms most commonly found growing on poultry carcases stored at 1° are pigmented and nonpigmented strains of Pseudomonas, Pseudomonas putrefaciens and strains of Acinetobacter. A comparison of total viable counts at 20 and 30° using stored turkeys, showed that certain strains could not be recovered at the higher temperature. When inoculated into minced breast and leg muscle, it was found that the pigmented and nonpigmented strains of Pseudomonas grew well in both muscle tissues. Strains of Acinetobacter groups B and C failed to grow in the breast muscle but grew in the leg muscle, Acinetobacter C growing much more rapidly than Acinetobacter B. The growth of Ps. putrefaciens was much faster in the leg muscle than in the breast muscle. These differences could partially be explained by differences in pH, the breast muscle having a pH value 5.7—5.9 compared with a pH value 6.4—6.7 for the leg muscle. The possible significance of these results in relation to the distribution and growth of these organisms on the chicken or turkey carcase is discussed.

Microbiological Spoilage of Meat and Poultry Products

“…Initially, the spoilage microflora will metabolize glucose, and then shift to substrates such as amino acids as the glucose is depleted. In Barnes and Impey (1968) particular, amino acid metabolism contributes to off-odor production. Slime formation generally follows the production of undesirable odors.…”

Coaggregation between Rhodococcus and Acinetobacter strains isolated from the food industry

“…Although Acinetobacter is not frequently identified as the cause of microbial spoilage, it has been associated with spoilage of meat, seafood and poultry stored at cooling temperatures (Barnes and Impey 1968;Hinton et al 2004). Rhodococcus equi causes mainly lung associated infections in immunocompromised individuals, but also other species of Rhodococcus, such as R. erythropolis have been reported to cause infections (Bell et al 1998).…”

“…Acinetobacter sp. may play a role in spoilage of foods (Barnes and Impey 1968;Hinton et al 2004) and both Acinetobacter sp. and Rhodococcus sp.…”

Chemical and organoleptic changes in poultry meat resulting from the growth of psychrophylic spoilage bacteria at 1° C

“…On the basis of this and similar information it was decided to inoculate samples of aseptically minced chicken muscle with representative strains of the more important psychrophilic spoilage organisms (Barnes and Impey, 1968). In the first instance samples of breast and leg muscle would be inoculated with individual strains, and subsequently with a mixture of the organisms, to give an initial count of IO 4 -IO 5 organisms/g.…”

“…1, and two Acinetobacter strains group B (MTF5/239) and group C (MTF5/122), of the composition given in Table 1. Details of the properties of these strains are given by Barnes and Impey (1968).…”