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Potassium hydroxide and lauric acid fight poultry processing micro-organisms
A mixture of potassium hydroxide and lauric acid may be useful for
reducing the level of microbial contamination associated with poultry
processing, according to research published in the Journal of Food
Protection.
Researchers tested the antimicrobial activity of solutions of potassium
hydroxide (KOH) and mixtures of KOH and lauric acid against micro-organisms
associated with poultry processing.
In vitro tests were performed by
enumerating viable micro-organisms recovered from bacterial cultures suspended
in peptone water (control) and in solutions of 0.1% KOH or mixtures of 0.1% KOH
and 0.25 or 0.50% lauric acid.
Additional studies were conducted to
identify changes in the native microbial flora of poultry skin washed in
distilled water, KOH, or KOH-lauric acid.
Although results of in
vitro studies indicated that significantly fewer bacteria were recovered from
cultures suspended in KOH than from cultures suspended in peptone water, there
were also significantly fewer bacteria recovered from cultures suspended in
KOH-lauric acid than from cultures suspended in KOH.
Results of
experiments with broiler skin indicated that although rinsates of skin washed in
1.0% KOH solutions contained significantly fewer total aerobic bacteria and
enterococci than skin washed in water, significantly fewer of these
micro-organisms were generally recovered from rinsates of skin washed in
mixtures of 1.0% KOH and 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0% lauric acid than from skin
washed in KOH alone.
Washing of broiler skin in solutions of 0.25 to
1.00% KOH or mixtures containing these concentrations of KOH and two parts
lauric acid (wt/vol) also significantly reduced the populations of bacteria and
yeasts in the native flora of broiler skin. Enterococci, lactic acid bacteria,
and staphylococci in the native flora of the skin had the highest level of
resistance to the bactericidal activity of KOH-lauric acid.
These
findings indicate that the antimicrobial activity of KOH-lauric acid is
significantly greater than that of KOH alone in vitro and on poultry
skin.
The full
text of the research is available for purchase from IngentaConnect.
Editor WorldPoultry
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