Microbiological quality of chicken thighs meat after four essential oils combination, EDTA and vaccum packing

The aim of the present work to monitoring chicken the microbiological quality of vaccum packaged thighs after treatment by ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), anise (Pimpinella anisum), spearmint (Mentha spicata var. crispa), thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) oregano (Origanum vulgare L.) essential oils and stored in at 4 ±0.5 °C for a period of 16 days. The following treatments of chicken thighs were used: air-packaged control samples, control vacuum-packaged samples, vacuum-packaging with EDTA solution 1.5% w/w, control samples, vacuum-packaging after treatment with Pimpinella anisum, Mentha spicata var. crispa essential oil at concentrations 0.2% v/w, vacuum-packaging after treatment with Thymus vulgaris L., Origanum vulgare L. essential oil at concentration 0.2% v/w. The quality assessment of all samples was done microbiologically and following microbiological parameters were detected: the anaerobic plate count, Enterobacteraceae counts, lactic acid bacteria and Pseudomonas spp. counts. The number of anaerobic plate count ranged from 3.69 log CFU.g-1 in all tested group on 0 day to 5.68 log CFU.g-1 on 16 day in control group stored in air condition. The number of lactic acid bacteria ranged from 2.00 log CFU.g-1 in all tested group on 0 day to 4.82 log CFU.g-1 on 16 day in group with oregano, thyme essential oils combination. Enterobacteriacea counts in chicken thighs was 0.68 log CFU.g-1 on 0 day to 7.58 CFU.g-1 on 16 day in air-packed meat samples. The Pseudomonas spp. was not found in all tested samples. Among the antimicrobial combination treatments examined in this work, the as application of vacuum packaging, EDTA and essential oils treatment was the most effective against the growth of Enterobactericeae, inhibitory effect on anaerobic plate count also was observed. The results of this present study suggest the possibility of application the Pimpinella anisum, Mentha spicata var. crispa, Thymus vulgaris L., Origanum vulgare L. essential oil of as natural food preservatives and potential sources of antimicrobial ingredients for food industry for chicken thighs meat treatment.