Effect of acetic acid and propionic acid on bacteriological quality of beef

Abstract

The bacterial contamination of meat surface is posing a threat to public health and meat trade. It is necessary to minimise the bacterial load at all levels of production, storage and marketing. Use of sanitizer is one of the methods suggested for reducing the bacterial load on carcass surface. The study was undertaken to assess the efficiency of acetic and propionic acids at one and two per cent strength as sanitizer on beef. Carcasses obtained from Kerala Agricultural University Slaughter House, were subjected for the study. The samples were maintained at ambient temperature for 24 h. The acid treatment of samples was done immediately after slaughter. The total viable count,coliform count and faecal streptococcal count were estimated by standard methods at zero, one, five, nine, and twenty-four hours of storage. An upward trend of bacterial load was observed during storage. At all intervals, the bacterial load was significantly lower in treated samples compared to that of control. The bacterial load was found to be significantly lower in samples subjected to acid treatments at two per cent level than one per cent. The persistence of the effect was found to be inversely proportional to the duration of storage. The bacterial load could generally be confined with one per cent acetic acid upto five hours and nine hours with two per cent acetic acid within the initial count Though propionic acid at one and two per cent levels had beneficial effect acetic acid was found to be better