Combined effect of steam and lactic acid treatments for inactivating Campylobacter jejuni inoculated on chicken skin

Raw poultry carcasses are often contaminated with pathogens, including Salmonella spp., Campylobacter jejuni and Listeria monocytogenes. Campylobacteriosis is an emerging and one of the most frequently reported zoonotic infectious disease. Further to the best management practices in husbandry, slaughtering and processing, decontaminating treatments might be required to control microbial hazards. A previous study has shown that combining heat and lactic acid treatments for decontaminating chicken skin inoculated with Listeria innocula or Salmonella enteritidis seems particularly promising as it cumulates the advantages of each treatment: an immediate bacterial reduction due to the heat treatment while acid treatment leads to a bacteriostatic or bactericidal effect. during storage. After 7 days of storage at 4°C, the combined treatment was even more effective than each single treatment. The present work evaluated the effectiveness of combined heat and lactic acid treatments for inactivating Campylobacterjejuni. Chicken skins were inoculated with Campylobacterjejuni (6.5 log10 cfu.cm-2) and treated with steam (100°C during 8s) and/or lactic acid (5% v/v for 1 min at 25°C). Residual bacteria on the skin were enumerated immediately after treatment and after 7 days of storage at 4°C. Bacterial concentration was expressed in log10 cfu.cm-2. Each treatment was repeated 10 times. (Texte intégral