Meat can be contaminated with (pathogenic) microorganisms during slaughter, dissection and packaging. Therefore, preservation technologies are frequently used to reduce the risk of (fatal) human infections due to the consumption of meat. In this study, we first investigated, if the application of ethyl-Nα-dodecanyl-L-arginate hydrochloride (LAE) and the starter culture bacteria Staphylococcus carnosus and Lactobacillus sakei, either single or in combination, influences the bacteria number on pork, chicken meat and beef, inoculated with Brochothrix (Br.) thermosphacta (all meat species) or Salmonella (S.) Typhimurium (pork), Campylobacter (C.) jejuni (chicken) and Listeria (L.) monocytogenes (beef), before packaging under modified atmosphere and on days 7 and 14 of storage. To evaluate effects of the treatment on the appearance during storage, additionally, the physicochemical parameters color and myoglobin redox form percentages were analyzed. LAE regularly resulted in a significant reduction of the number of all bacteria species on day 1 of storage, whereas up to day 14 of storage, the preservation effect did not persist in nearly all samples, except in the beef with Br. thermosphacta. However, with the starter culture bacteria on day 1, only L. monocytogenes on beef was significantly reduced. Interestingly, on day 7 of storage, this reducing effect was also found with S. Typhimurium on pork. Br. thermosphacta, which was principally not influenced by the starter culture bacteria. The combinatory treatment mainly resulted in no additional effects, except for the S. Typhimurium and Br. thermosphacta results on pork on day 7 and the Br. thermosphacta results on beef on day 14. The physicochemical parameters were not influenced by the single and combinatory treatment. The results indicate that LAE was mainly responsible for the antimicrobial effects and that a combination with starter culture bacteria should be individually evaluated for the meat species.
Keywords: LAE; beef; chicken meat; color; microbiology; myoglobin redox forms; pork; starter cultures.