Microbiological Quality of Fresh Chicken Breast Meat after Rosemary Essential Oil Treatment and Vacuum Packaging

The objective of the present research was to develop vacuum packaging incorporated with Rosmarinus officinalis L. essential oil treatment of fresh chicken breast meat. For this purpose, fresh chicken’s meat breast samples were divided into three groups. First group was kept as a control group with air packaging, others one was with vacuum packaging of samples and last one group was treated with rosemary essential oil. All fresh chickens’ breast meat samples were stored at 4°C and microbiological evaluation was conducted at intervals of 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16 days poststorage for lactic acid bacteria and Pseudomonas aeroginosa counts. Rosmarinus officinalis L. essential oil 2%, significantly reduced lactic acid bacteria and Pseudomonas aeroginosa counts in the fresh chickens breast meat samples. The results indicated that 2% essential oil improved the microbiological quality and prolonged the shelf-life of the fresh chicken’s breast meat to sixteen days of retail displayed at 4°C. The results obtained in this study point to the necessity of continuing investigations to determine the dose of rosemary preparations that would inhibit the growth of microflora being the most frequent cause of raw materials and products spoilage.