Browsing by Author "Salo, Paula"

The quality of Finish broiler meats is ensured during the whole foodchain from primary production to retail trades. Broiler meat products have to maintain the typical microbiological, chemical and sensory attributes during the shelf life. The shelf life of foods are regulated by the European Union and the Finish national law and by the directions of the Finish Food Safety Authority which the food companies have to follow. The shelf life of broiler meat products and especially the microbiological quality can be affected by the internal and the external factors of foods. The internal factors are pH, water activity (aw) and content of nutritive. The food packaging technology, storage temperature and the activity of microbes are examples of external factors that influence the shelf life. The shelf life of broiler meat products can be affected for example by controlling the number of microbes in the carcass during slaughter, packaging technology and storage temperature. The shelf life of meat products can be influenced especially by the storage temperature so that growing conditions of microbes can be controlled in a way that the generation time of spoilage microbes will be as long as possible. The shelf life of meat products and microbial quality will specially have an effect on the microbial load of animals when they are transported to slaughter house. Additionally, the microbial quality of a final product will be affected by the process steps of the slaughter and the contaminations that will happen during the cutting and the packaging. The carcasses passes through the following processes during the slaughter: stunning, bleeding, scalding, rinsing, evisceration, washing and chilling. The aims of the research were to investigate the changes of the microbial load of carcasses during the slaughter and especially how the microbial load can be controlled. Additionally, it was studied how two process parameters affected the microbial quality of carcasses and how the packaging technology affected the microbiological, sensory and chemical properties of products.