Vacuum or modified atmosphere packaging and EDTA-nisin treatment to increase poultry product shelf life

These experiments sought to increase the shelf life of poultry by treatment with a disodium ethylenediametetra-acetate (EDTA) and nisin (NIS) combinat ion and storage under modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) or vacuum packagi ng (VP). Chicken drummettes were soaked with various combination of EDTA an d NIS for 30 min at 15 degrees C and stored at 4 degrees C. Part treated wi th EDTA-NIS stored under VP had significantly lower (P less than or equal t o.01) total aerobic plate counts than untreated controls stored under aerob ic conditions. EDTA-NIS increased shelf life by a minimum of 4 days when pa ckaged in aerobic conditions and a maximum of 9 days when vacuum packed. A second experiment evaluated the VP and EDTA-NIS combinations in more detail . Parts treated with EDTA-NIS stored under VP had significantly different ( P less than or equal to.01) aerobic counts from parts treated with EDTA-NIS stored under aerobic conditions or untreated control parts. EDTA-NIS treat ment increased shelf life 4 to 7 days in the second experiment. The results indicate that a combination of EDTA-NIS treatment and vacuum packaging has the potential to significantly increase the shelf life of raw processed po ultry.