Abstract
Essential oils in combination with other antimicrobials can be added to food products to reduce the levels of target microbes lower than the infectious dose required to cause human illness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial efficacy of white mustard essential oil (WMEO) and carvacrol against Salmonella in ground chicken stored at 4 and 10°C. At 4°C, 0.75% WMEO +0.1% carvacrol treatment had significantly lower (P < 0.05) Salmonella at the end of 12-day storage than the control, which contained no antimicrobials. A combination of 0.75% WMEO and 0.01% carvacrol had a bacteriostatic effect against Salmonella in ground chicken samples stored at 10°C for 7 D. The application of the antimicrobials controlled the growth of Salmonella by delaying the exponential phase at temperature abuse and reducing levels of Salmonella to less than the positive control at 4°C. The use of WMEO and carvacrol shows potential in reducing levels of Salmonella under refrigerated conditions and controlling its growth under temperature abuse conditions in raw poultry products. Further research is needed to investigate the toxicity of the compounds and the most efficient way to apply it to a food product to maximize antimicrobial activity.