The influence of environmental factors (product composition and storage conditions) on the selection, growth rate and metabolic activity of the bacterial flora is presented for meat (pork and beef) and cooked, cured meat products. The predominant bacteria associated with spoilage of refrigerated beef and pork, are Brochothrix thermosphacta, Carnobacterium spp., Enterobacteriaceae, Lactobacillus spp., Leuconostoc spp., Pseudomonas spp. and Shewanella putrefaciens. The main defects in meat are off-odours and off-flavours, but discolouration and gas production also occur. Bacteria associated with the spoilage of refrigerated meat products, causing defects such as sour off-flavours, discolouration, gas production, slime production and decrease in pH, consist of B. thermosphacta, Carnobacterium spp. Luctobacillus spp. Leuconostoc spp. and Weissella spp. Analysis of spoilage as measured by bacterial and chemical indicators is discussed. It is concluded that a multivariate approach based on spectra of chemical compounds, may be helpful in order to analyse spoilage, at least for spoilage caused by lactic acid bacteria. The consequences of bacteria bacteria interactions should be evaluated more.
Meat spoilage can be caused by natural processes, such as lipid oxidation or autolytic enzymatic that occurs in the muscle after slaughtering. Several factors are responsible for microbial contamination of meat such as:
A series of the event takes place during rigor mortis after the slaughter of the animal such as:
Spoilage of fresh meat
There are two types of spoilage of meat:
The kind of defects caused by microorganisms on fresh meat
Spoilage of meat
Some defects caused by microorganism in different kinds of meat are:
Spoilage of refrigerated meat
Spoilage of cured meat
Some defect in different cured meat products caused by microorganism are:
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