Abstract
This study aims to evaluate the effects of spices essential oils (SEOs) on the microbial populations in chilled pork stored in PE film antimicrobial package. The microbiota from the pork under different storage conditions were studied by Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) of the V3 variable region of the 16S rRNA, followed by sequencing of DGGE fragments. We found that SEOs resulted in an overall significant reduction of viable counts of Gram positive bacteria such as Carnobacteria, Enterococcus sp., Staphylococcus sp. and Brochotrix thermosphacta compared to the control. A 2.5 log cycles reduction of enterobacteria was also identified compared to the control during storage, while SEOs had little effect on Pseudomonas sp. the total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN)and Thiobarbituric acid reactive substance(TBARS) were affected by the use of SEO packages, but color (L*, a*, b*), shear force and cooking loss were not affected. The bacteriostatic effect of clove EO was the best among all the SEOs tested, and the number of spoilage populations decreased with the use of the SEOs, but the species diversity of spoilage microbiota was not affected.
