Modeling the Transfer of Salmonella Enteritidis during Slicing of Ready-to-Eat Turkey Products Treated with Thyme Essential Oil

The increased demand for low-sodium ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products highlights the need for new strategies to ensure food safety. The application of essential oils (EOs) as natural antimicrobials in the meat industry has been suggested to prevent or control cross-contamination during meat processing operations. This work aims to quantify and model the transfer of Salmonella Enteritidis during the slicing procedure of RTE turkey products treated with thyme essential oil (TEO) at a concentration of 0.1% (v/w). Two products were subjected to the slicing procedure with slicer blades inoculated with S. Enteritidis at 108 cfu/mL. The Weibull and modified Weibull predictive models were fitted to the transfer data. Twenty slices were sampled and showed positive with bacteria, indicating cross-contamination. The number of cells transferred per slice decreased logarithmically during the assays. The transfer models, based on the Weibull model, were suitable to describe the bacterial transfer trend on slices in most cases. TEO treatment reduced the transfer of Salmonella on a preservative free RTE turkey product. The predictive models obtained in this study can help food-quality staff and managers on the design and assessment of processes to guard RTE turkey products against Salmonella. This work supports the addition of EOs to reduce microbial risk in RTE meat products.