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Preservation Methods for Meat and Poultry

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Microbial Control and Food Preservation

Part of the book series: Food Microbiology and Food Safety ((RESDEV))

Abstract

The transformation of animals into meat involves several operations including: (a) handling and loading of animals on the farm, (b) transportation of animals to the slaughterhouse, (c) off-loading and holding of animals and (d) slaughtering of animals. The conditions under which animals are reared and slaughtered determine the level, extent and type of microbial contamination that may be introduced to the essentially sterile underlying tissue. The most likely sources of contamination of fresh meat include the abiotic environment in contact with the animals (air, soil, water, feed), the animal itself (skin, intestinal tract, feces) and the slaughterhouse environment (equipment, utensils and humans).Consumer demands and expectations for safer, higher quality meat with longer shelf-life has driven the development of alternative and advanced preservation technologies. The more recent preservation technologies that have been developed can be grouped into five main categories namely: (1) low temperatures (superchilling), (2) antimicrobials, (3) biopreservation, (4) non-thermal technologies such as high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and irradiation and (5) packaging technologies.This chapter provides a review of traditional preservation methods for meat and an introduction to the advanced and developing preservation technologies that have been or are in development for the preservation of meat.

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  1. Chobani, LLC, New York, NY, USA

    Jarret D. Stopforth

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  1. Jarret D. Stopforth
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Correspondence to Jarret D. Stopforth .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Residue Chemistry and Predictive, Microbiology Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, USA

    Vijay K. Juneja

  2. BioMerieux, Inc., Hazelwood, Missouri, USA

    Hari P. Dwivedi

  3. Department of Animal Sciences, Center for Meat Safety and Quality, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

    John N. Sofos

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Stopforth, J.D. (2017). Preservation Methods for Meat and Poultry. In: Juneja, V., Dwivedi, H., Sofos, J. (eds) Microbial Control and Food Preservation. Food Microbiology and Food Safety(). Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7556-3_11

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