Some physicochemical and microbiological evolution of vacuum packaged beef, lamb and chicken meat during refrigerated storage

In this study, it was aimed to determine some physicochemical and microbiological properties of vacuum packaged chicken (t), lamb (k) and beef (d) meat samples which were stored at 4oc for 7 days. the ph value, titratable acidity (lactic acid %), water activity value (aw), dripping loss and cooking loss values of meat samples were evaluated at the beginning and on the 1st, 4th and 7th days of storage. in order to determine the microbiological properties of meat samples, enumeration of total mesophilic aerobic bacteria (tmab) and the analysis of salmonella and escherichia coli o157 were considered at the same sampling periods. dripping loss and cooking loss values of all meat samples showed significant increases during the storage period for 7 days. it was seen that, d samples which had the lowest ph value showed the highest dripping loss and cooking loss values among the meat types while t samples which had the highest ph values showed the lowest dripping loss and cooking loss values. it was determined that d samples had the lower initial microorganism counts in comparison with the other meat samples just according to the results of microbiological analysis. tmab numbers dramatically showed significant increases during storage for all samples (p<0.05), the numbers were reached to 8.23 - 9.77 log cfu/g at the end of 7th day. e. coli o157 was detected in all samples, while salmonella was detected from t and d samples. according to the data obtained from microbiological analyses, the initial microflora of d lower than others, on the other hand, all meat samples contained pathogenic microorganisms as a result of contamination at slaughtering and processing stages.