MICROBIOLOGY OF FRESH AND RESTRUCTURED LAMB MEAT - A REVIEW

Microbiology of meats has been a subject of great concern in food scie nce and public health in recent years. Although many articles have bee n devoted to the microbiology of beef, pork, and poultry meats, much l ess has been written about microbiology of lamb meat and even less on restructured lamb meat. This article presents data on microbiology and shelf-life of fresh lamb meat; restructured meat products, restructur ed lamb meat products, bacteriology of restructured meat products, and important foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli 01 57:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes in meats and lamb meats. Also, the p otential use of sodium and potassium lactates to control foodborne pat hogens in meats and restructured lamb meat is reviewed. This article s hould be of interest to all meat scientists, food scientists, and publ ic health microbiologists who are concerned with the safety of meats i n general and lamb meat in particular.