Purpose: In this study, ready-to-eat, vacuum packaged sliced cured turkey breasts were high pressure treated at 86,565 psi for 180 seconds at 5.5°C to evaluate the effect of high pressure processing (HPP) for shelf life extension of this product.
Methods: Two lots of the HPP treated and untreated control products were stored at 4°C for 120 days and 60 days, respectively. Over the storage period anaerobic plate counts, lactic acid bacterial counts, and yeast and mold counts were performed in triplicate on the two lots to determine microbial spoilage of the product. Additionally appearance of the product was documented over time to determine acceptability of the product over storage.
Results: Anaerobic plate counts, lactic acid bacterial counts, yeast and mold counts of the HPP treated product over 120 days were <10 CFU/g indicating the microbiological stability of the product. The color of the treated product went from a light pink tone to a whitish tone with slight purge development over the storage period. The anaerobic plate counts of the untreated product ranged from <10 CFU/ g on day 19 to >25,000,000 CFU/g on day 55 and <10 CFU/g on day 13 to 130,000,000 CFU/g on day 60 in both lots. The anaerobic plate counts of the untreated product exceeded the critical spoilage limit of 10,000,000 bacteria/g on day 45. The color of the untreated product went from a light pink tone to a lighter pink, whitish tone with slight purge development over the 60 day storage period.
Significance: The results show that HPP at 86,565 psi for 180 seconds at 5.5°C extends the microbiological shelf life of sliced cured vacuum packaged turkey breast by 75 days stored at 4°C.