Shelf life of ground poultry meat stored under modified atmosphere. Poultry Sci

ABSTRACT The shelf life of ground chicken and turkey meat packaged under a modified atmosphere containing O2 and a high level of CO2 (62 % CO2, 8 % O2, and 30% N2; gas-1), or a gas mixture without O2 (20 % CO2 and 80 % N2; gas-2) was evaluated for 20 d at 1 C. Meat pack-aged under gas-2 maintained a higher a * value (redness) throughout the experiment and generally had a more appealing color than the meat packaged using gas-1. Mi-crobial populations were assessed after 8, 12, and 15 d of storage. Total aerobic mesophilic counts were higher i