US researchers discover bacteria-reducing mixture for chicken

Food Safety Consortium researchers at the University of Arkansas have found that a mixture of organic acids and plant extracts could greatly reduce pathogenic bacteria on chicken breast meat.

E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes and salmonella typhimurium in the chicken breast meat can be greatly reduced in chicken breast meat by injecting a mixture of acetic, citric, lactic, malic and tartaric acid into the meat.

The experiments were also performed with extracts from green tea and grape seeds in combination with the acids.

The researchers found that malic, citric and tartaric were most effective against salmonella typhimurium and E. coli than against Listeria monocytogenes. The results were significant against all the pathogens when irradiation was counted in.

Previous research by the research team found that extracts from grape seed and green tea reduced Listeria monocytogenes to undetectable levels when applied with nisin, a bacteriocin recognised as a safe food preservative.

The team is also using the plant extracts to serve as antioxidants which minimises lipid oxidation that causes meat quality to deteriorate. Irradiation is found to have no significant effect on the chicken's colour and texture.

The research is still ongoing, but project supervisor Navam Hettiarachchy said a poultry company has showed interest in the findings. However, irradiation is not applied widely in the US as many companies are worried about potential consumer resistance.