Evaluation of Simulated Shelf-Life Conditions for Food Service Applications on Chicken Tenderloins

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Poultry products are popular meat products in the United States for both retail and food service sectors. Food service operators typically obtain food products in bulk as they utilize products quickly and at a high volume. Typically, chicken arrives to food service operators frozen in bulk packaging and is thawed or slacked by storing it in refrigerated temperatures (2 °C to 4 °C) to be used over several days while maintaining its acceptability for cooking and serving to consumers. Ensuring a product is safe to consume is the most important factor in the food industry. This study measured the microbial growth on marinated chicken tenderloins that were aged after slaughter, bulk-packaged, frozen, then slacked for 132 h. At no time during the slacking period did any samples reach the limit (6 log) of unsafe microbial growth. Psychotropic bacteria grew at each sampling time and the tenderloins aged for 4 and 5 days post-slaughter surpassed all other treatments. As no samples surpassed the spoilage threshold, it is suggested that slacking is a safe method of thawing chicken tenderloins for up to 8 days post-slaughter. ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to validate the shelf-life of marinated and frozen chicken tenderloins. Treatments were randomly assigned to the age of the tenderloins post-harvest, days aged (DA): DA4, DA5, DA6, DA7, and DA8. Microbial analyses were used to analyze the growth of aerobic, psychotropic, and lactobacilli bacteria to assess the shelf-life of bulk-packaged chicken tenderloins. Tenderloins were sampled fresh, then vacuum tumbled in a marinade. After marination, the tenderloins were sampled with the remaining tenderloins packaged and frozen (−25 °C). After freezing the chicken tenderloins were slacked in a refrigerated cooler (2.2 °C) for up to 132 h (h) and sampled at 36 h, then every 24 h following. After marination, each treatment significantly (p < 0.05) decreased in aerobic and psychotropic counts except DA4. During slacking, no treatment crossed the threshold of 10(6) CFU/mL (Log 6) set for this study. Though none crossed the threshold, treatments DA4, DA5, and DA6 had significant (p < 0.05) increases in aerobic bacteria after 7 days of age. The psychotropic bacteria continuously grew at each sampling period, with DA4 and DA5 surpassing the other treatments (p < 0.05) at 108 h and 132 h reaching 105 CFU/mL. Every treatment remained below the spoilage threshold, suggesting that this method of storage is suitable for chicken tenderloin shelf-life.