ABSTRACT
Some psychrotrophic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are specific meat spoilage
organisms in modified-atmosphere-packaged (MAP), cold-stored meat
products. To determine if incoming broilers or the production plant
environment is a source of spoilage LAB, a total of 86, 122, and 447
LAB isolates from broiler carcasses, production plant air, and MAP
broiler products, respectively, were characterized using a library
of HindIII restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)
patterns of the 16 and 23S rRNA genes as operational taxonomic units in
numerical analyses. Six hundred thirteen LAB isolates from the total of
655 clustered in 29 groups considered to be species specific.
Sixty-four percent of product isolates clustered either with
Carnobacterium divergens or with Carnobacterium
maltaromaticum type strains. The third major product-associated
cluster (17% of isolates) was formed by unknown LAB. Representative
strains from these three clusters were analyzed for the phylogeny of
their 16S rRNA genes. This analysis verified that the two largest RFLP
clusters consisted of carnobacteria and showed that the unknown LAB
group consisted of Lactococcus spp. No product-associated LAB
were detected in broiler carcasses sampled at the beginning of
slaughter, whereas carnobacteria and lactococci, along with some other
specific meat spoilage LAB, were recovered from processing plant air at
many sites. This study reveals that incoming broiler chickens are not
major sources of psychrotrophic spoilage LAB, whereas the detection of
these organisms from the air of the processing environment highlights
the role of processing facilities as sources of LAB
contamination.
Biocomposites of Epoxidized Natural Rubber/Poly(lactic acid) Modified with Natural Fillers (Part I)