Quality and shelf-life of vacuum and aerobic packed Chevon patties under refrigeration

Patties were prepared using Barbari male goats meat (age about 4 yrs) and packed in HDPE under vacuum (VP) and aerobically (AP). Packed patties were stored at 4+/-1degreesC and evaluated for physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory changes on days 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25. Overall mean water activity (a(w)), moisture (%), fat (%), pH, TBA number and W-B shear force values (kg/cm(2)) of patties were 0.983, 61.93, 18.39, 6.38, 0.150 and 0.86, respectively Except pH that was significantly higher and TBA number significantly lower in VP patties, treatment had no significant (p>0.05) effect on other physico-chemical traits. However, storage period significantly (p<0.05) affected physico-chemical traits. Moisture (63.79%) and a(w) (0.985) were significantly (p<0.05) higher on day 25. Patties became firmer on day 20 onwards as indicated by higher W-B shear force. Though packaging method had no significant effect, storage period influenced microbial counts. The standard plate counts (SPC), which were initially log 5.98 CFU/g decreased significantly (p<0.05) on day 10 followed by steady increase and reaching log 4.89 on day 25. Almost similar trend was observed for psychrotrophic bacteria counts. Lactic acid bacteria counts declined as the storage period progressed. Coliforms, and yeast and mould counts were either not detected by the method used or were very low in numbers. All samples of AP patties revealed swollen, greasy and sticky surface with spongy texture on day 20 whereas only some of the VP patties shown such changes on day 20. Results indicated that vacuum packaging had definite advantage in preserving the sensory quality of patties than aerobic packaging but it did not help in extending the shelf-life beyond 15 days.