Evolution of spoilage microorganisms in vacuum-packed lamb meat from two portuguese breeds

Although meat ageing at cold storage is essential to improve meat tenderness (Prates, 2000), the natural process of microbial spoilage takes place at the same time due to the proliferation of psychrotrophic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, Pseudomonas spp. and Clostridium spp. (Berruga et al., 2005). A known strategy to moderately extend the shelf-life of meat is vacuum packaging. However, the spoilage retardation rate mainly depends on the initial microbiological quality of meat as well as its initial pH. The objective of this study was to evaluate the evolution of lactic acid bacteria and spoilage microorganisms (i.e., mesophiles, psychrotrophic bacteria and Pseudomonas spp.) in vacuum-packed lamb meat during cold storage at 4ºC. The microbial spoilage in meat originating from two Portuguese ovine breeds, Bordaleira- de-Entre-Douro-e-Minho (BEDM) and Churra-Galega-Bragançana (CGB), was compared.This work was supported by European Research Area on Sustainable Animal Production Systems (SusAn, ERA-NETSUSAN 2016/48, EcoLamb project).