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Title: THERMAL INACTIVATION D AND Z VALUES OF SALMONELLA AND LISTERIA INNOCUA IN FULLY COOKED AND VACUUM PACKAGED CHICKEN BREAST MEAT DURING POSTCOOK HEAT TREATMENT

Author
item MURPHY, R - UNIV OF ARKANSAS
item Berrang, Mark
item DUNCAN, L - UNIV OF ARKANSAS
item MARCY, J - UNIV OF ARKANSAS
item JOHNSON, R - UNIV OF ARKANSAS
item WOLFE, R - UNIV OF ARKANSAS

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/29/2002
Publication Date: 10/1/2002
Citation: Murphy, R.Y., Berrang, M.E., Duncan, L.K., Marcy, J.A., Johnson, R.E., Wolfe, R.E. 2002. Thermal inactivation d and z values of salmonella and listeria innocua in fully cooked and vacuum packaged chicken breast meat during postcook heat treatment. Poultry Science. 81(10):1578-1583.

Interpretive Summary: Fully cooked poultry meat products have been implicated in human illness due to the presence of microbial pathogens. This study was done to determine the effect of a post-cook pasteurization step to eliminate Salmonella and Listeria from cooked and packaged poultry breast meat. Fully cooked meat was inoculated, vacuum packaged and heat treated at temperatures ranging from 55 - 70 C for times ranging from 5 min to 90 min. At 70 C 0.097 min was required to reduce the numbers of Salmonella by 90% and 0.126 min was required to do the same for Listeria. These values can be used to calculate treatment times needed to eliminate these pathogens from fully cooked, packaged poultry meat in commercial further processing plants.

Technical Abstract: Studies were conducted to determine thermal inactivation D and z values of Salmonella and Listeria innouca in fully cooked and vacuum packaged chicken breast meat. Fully cooked chicken breast meat products that were obtained from three different sources with differing formulations were uniformly inoculated with a cocktail of Salmonella (including Senftenberg, Typhimurium, Heidelberg, Mission, Montevideo, and California) or L. innouca at approximately 10 7 cfu/g. The inoculated meat samples were vacuum-packaged and then heat-treated at a temperature of 55 - 70 degrees C for 5 - 90 min. After heat treatment, the samples were immediately cooled in an ice water bath. Survivors of Salmonella and L. innouca were enumerated for each sample. D and z values of Salmonella and L. innocua were determined for each product and compared among the products. Source and formulation did not cause significant differences in the D and z values of Salmonella or L. innocua among the three fully cooked and vacuum packaged chicken breast meat products.