Decontamination of deboned chicken legs by vacuum-tumbling in lactic acid solution

Summary

Vacuum tumbling in a 1–5% lactic acid solution for a short time (1–10 min) improves the microbiological quality of deboned chicken legs, while inducing a light acidification and water absorption. The most significant variable of the process is the tumbling speed. High tumbling speeds lead to a high decontamination level of the chicken legs with regard to total viable counts and Enterobacteriaceae. Sodium lactate alone is unable to induce any decontamination at the same concentrations. Decontamination is probably more linked to acidification than to lactate ions. The use of vacuum tumbled (1 min in a 1% lactic acid solution) deboned chicken legs in the industrial manufacture of fresh chicken sausages led to a clear decrease in the number of Salmonella-positive batches. The incidence of positive batches was reduced threefold and the acid decontamination process did not adversely affect the sensory quality of the sausages.