Processing and preservation of meat, poultry and seafood

Contamination of animal carcasses and raw products by microorganisms, including spoilage and pathogenic types, is practically unavoidable. Additionally, muscle foods such as meat, poultry and seafood are excellent food matrix for microorganism development due to their high moisture content and diversity of nutrients. Moreover, all foods are subject to physical, chemical and biological undesirable deterioration during storage. So, to extend products shelf life and to assure their safety from a microbiological point of view, it is necessary to apply adequate decontamination processes. However, the quality characteristics of the processed final products may be affected. To inactivate undesirable microorganisms and enzymes responsible for quality decay, adequate treatments should be applied. These are essentially based in high- temperature and lowtemperature conditions, moisture control, radiation technologies, chemical preservatives addition and microbial antagonisms. This chapter provides an overview of physical, chemical and microbiological methods frequently used to preserve muscle foods, focusing on safety aspects and quality characteristics of processed foods. Hurdle combinations of methods and modified atmosphere packaging that allow shelf life extension are also highlighted.