The effects of ozone, chlorine dioxide, cetylpyridinium chloride and trisodium phosphate as multiple antimicrobial interventions on microbiological, instrumental color, and sensory color and odor characteristics of ground beef.

The impact of multiple antimicrobial interventions on ground beef microbial, color and sensory characteristics was studied. For this, beef trimmings were inoculated with Escherichia coli (EC) and Salmonella typhimurium (ST) then treated with either (1) 1% ozonated water followed by 5% acetic acid (OA), (2) 1% ozonated water followed by 0.5% cetylpyridinium chloride (OC), (3) 200 ppm chlorine dioxide followed by 10% trisodium phosphate (CT) or (4) control (C). Trimmings were ground, packaged and sampled at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 7 days of display for EC, ST, coliforms (CO), aerobic plate count (APC), instrumental color and sensory color and odor characteristics. The OA and OC treatments reduced (P<0.05) all bacterial types evaluated, while CT reduced (P<0.05) EC, CO and APC. The CT treatment was redder (P<0.05) in overall color than C, and there was no difference (P>0.05) in beef odor or off odor between OC, CT or C treatments.