Assessment of the effects of olives leaf and guava seed extracts on quality and shelf life of chilled chicken meatballs

The increasing threat of spoilage bacterial infections, driven by the resistance of bacteria to many antimicrobial treatments, is a significant worldwide public health problem, especially concerning food preservation. To tackle these difficulties, this research investigates the possibility of using natural plant- based preservatives that increasing storage time. Products containing poultry meat are frequently sold chilled (2–5 ◦C). Due to microbial development, chicken meat products experience too many unfavorable changes throughout the chilling period, which causes spoiling and financial loss. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of OLE (olive leaf extracts) used at concentration (2%), guava seed extracts (GSE) at concentration (2%) and mixture of them OLE: GSE (1:1) on the quality and shelf life of chill stored chicken meatballs. The chemical (pH, TBA, and TVB-N), microbiological (total bacterial, psychrotrophic, coliform, Staphylococcus aureus, and total mold counts), and sensory characteristics (color, odor, texture, and overall acceptability) of the treated groups differed significantly (P<0.05) from the untreated control group. Among the treated samples, OLE (2%) showed the highest reduction in aerobic plate count, psychrotrophic count, coliform count, and staphylococcus aureus count, as the mean count decreased from 4.15 ± 0.04, 3.77 ± 0.03, 3.09 ± 0.01and 2.95 ± 0.07 to 2.07 ± 0.10, 1.75 ± 0.03, 1.45 ± 0.08 and1.70 ± 0.05 (log cfu/gm), and they increased the shelf-life of the chicken meatballs, which lasted up to 18 days when kept properly refrigerated compared to the control group, which went bad by the ninth day of storage.