Combined effects of ozone and freeze-drying on the shelf-life of Broiler chicken meat

The effects of ozone on the shelf-life extension of freeze-dried chicken meat fillets stored at 21 ± 1 C were investigated. The samples were exposed to gaseous ozone with three ozone concentrations of 0.4, 0.6 and 0.72 ppm during 10, 30, 60 and 120 min. The shelf-life of the ozonated freeze-dried chicken meat samples was determined using both microbiological and sensory analyses during 8 months of storage. Ozone and lyophilisation (Combined treatments) were shown to be valid in retarding the growth of most microbial groups from the first month of storage. High microbial counts were found in frozen meat from month 6 onwards, with total aerobic mesophilic bacteria (TAMB) counts above 7 log cfu/g and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) counts above 5 log cfu/g, whereas decreases of 6.8 and 4.77 log cfu/g for TAMB and LAB counts were reported in combined treated samples when compared with untreated meat (frozen meat). Also, 3.26 and 1.41-log reductions were observed with respect to non-ozonated freeze-dried meat (trt-0). Regarding sensory characteristics, the combined use of ozone and lyophilisation would be useful in extending the shelf-life of raw chicken breast meat up to 8 months, whilst the samples treated only with lyophilisation showed a 4 month shelf-life