The effects of novel bioactive carboxymethyl cellulose coatings on food borne pathogenic bacteria and shelf life extension of fresh and sauced chicken breast fillets

The aims of the present study were to evaluate the effects of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) coatings containing Ziziphora clinopodioides (ZEO; 0, 0.25 and 0.5%) and Mentha spicata (MEO; 0 and 0.5%) essential oils on pathogenic bacteria (i.e. Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium and Campylobacter jejuni) and shelf life extension of fresh and sauced chicken breast fillets under refrigerated condition for two weeks. The order of bacterial spoilage population (i.e. total viable count, psychrotrophic count, Pseudomonas spp., P. fluorescens and Enterobacteriaceae), survival of pathogenic bacteria and lipid oxidation of coated samples are as follows: CMC > CMC + MEO 0.5% > CMC + ZEO 0.25% > CMC + ZEO 0.5% > CMC + ZEO 0.25% + MEO 0.5% > CMC + ZEO 0.5% + MEO 0.5%. Our findings indicated that application of CMC coatings containing ZEO in combination with MEO can reduce the number of test pathogens and increase the shelf life of fresh and sauced chicken breast fillets.