Investigation of the combined effect of alginate coating and specific bacteriophage on Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar enteritidis reduction and physicochemical properties of chicken fillet during cold storage

The significance of our work lies in its potential to provide an effective alternative method for enhancing food safety and prolonging the shelf life of poultry products amidst rising concerns over antibiotic use and foodborne pathogens. The present study aimed to investigate, for the first time, the combined effect of alginate coating and Salmonella enteritidis bacteriophage on the physicochemical characteristics and reduction of S. enteritidis in chicken fillets during cold storage. The microbial analysis results indicated that the number of Salmonella in the samples decreased after treatment with alginate and the bacterial count reduced from 4 log CFU/mL on day 0 to 3.00 log CFU/mL on day 6. For samples treated with bacteriophage and alginate + bacteriophage, the bacterial count in bacterial count on the sixth day was 3.59 and 2.98 log CFU/mL, respectively. When compared to the control sample, the percentage of reduction in the number of Salmonella was calculated to be >69 % for all three treatments after 6 days. The most significant reduction in Salmonella count was observed in samples treated with bacteriophage + alginate. Following that, treatments with alginate and bacteriophage were found to be the most effective in reducing microbial contamination in the samples. The pH values of the chicken fillet samples ranged from 6.31 +/- 0.03 to 6.74 +/- 0.03, with no significant difference except on the first and third days. While the moisture percentage of all meat samples decreased during storage, no significant changes were reported in any of the treatments. The results from TVB-N analysis showed no significant difference between the TVB-N values of the samples, but on other days, a significant difference was observed between the control sample and the treated samples (p <= 0.05). In terms of sensory evaluation, significant differences in color and texture were observed only on the third and fifth days, with no significant differences on other days. The results of this study demonstrated that both alginate and bacteriophage treatments effectively enhanced the bacterial and physicochemical characteristics of chicken fillets during cold storage.