A Comparative Study of the Efficacy of Some Preservatives on Meat Processing

Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli are two bacterial pathogens believed to be the primary causes of food poisoning. The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of 150 meat samples from beef, mutton, and camels collected from Egypt's El-Menoufia Governorate, as well as to determine the effect of certain preservatives (sodium benzoate 1% and potassium sorbate 1%) on meat shelf life and the expression of some virulence genes of harmful microorganisms (S. aureus and E. coli) in meat using real-time PCR. The highest total colony, Staphylococcus, and E. coli counts were found in mutton, followed by beef and camel meat. Accepted samples with TCC less than 106 included 88% camel meat, 84% beef, and 78% mutton. S. aureus was found in 42.6% of the meat samples (64/150), with a significant difference (p<0.05) between the samples, and 25.3% of the samples (38/150) contained E. coli. The Virulence genes (icaD and fnbA) were detected by PCR in 26.5% and 32.8% of S. aureus isolates, respectively, while papC and iutA were detected in 18.4% and 21% of E. coli isolates. The in vitro examination of the effects of both sodium benzoate 1%, and potassium sorbate 1% on beef meat inoculated with either S. aureus or E. coli revealed that the control group decomposed on day 12, while the other treated groups demonstrated a reduction in bacterial count until day 9 of the experiment. A significant difference (p<0.001) was observed between the treated groups and the control group.