Effect of a nano-silver coating on the quality of fresh turkey meat during storage after modified atmosphere or vacuum packaging

Nano-silver is used in consumer products due to its antibacterial properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a nano-silver-coated film on the quality of turkey meat during vacuum-sealed and modified atmosphere packaging up to 12 days of storage. In the first part of the experiment, turkey breasts were packaged using either vacuum packaging or modified atmosphere packages (MAPs) and contained films with or without a nano-silver coating (control film). Parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity, color (lightness L*, redness a*), myoglobin redox forms, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), biogenic amines (BAs), total viable bacterial counts, Pseudomonas species counts, and Enterobacteriaceae species counts were evaluated on storage days 4, 8, and 12. In the second part of the study, the antimicrobial effect of a nano-silver-coated film on turkey breast was evaluated after inoculation with Escherichia coli (E. coli). Turkey meat packaged with the nano-silver film exhibited lower a* values on days 1 (3.15 +/- 0.62), 4 (3.90 +/- 0.68), and 8 (4.27 +/- 0.76) compared to the packaged meat with the control film (3.41 +/- 0.73, 4.35 +/- 0.94, 4.85 +/- 0.89, respectively), indicating special optical properties of nanoparticles. Concerning the BAs, silver packaged meat showed higher values of tyramine on day 12 (1274 +/- 392 ng/g meat) and cadaverine on day 4 (1224 +/- 435 ng/g meat) compared to the normal packaged products (647 +/- 576 and 508 +/- 314 ng/g meat, respectively). MAP meat revealed higher L* and TBARS values and lower microbial counts than the vacuum packaged products on all days. The MAP meat also showed lower a* results on days 4 and 8 and higher metmyoglobin (metMb) values on days 8 and 12 compared to the vacuum products. In the inoculation study, the microbial counts of the turkey meat were comparable between the two film types. The study showed that the nano-silver coating did not exhibit any advantageous effects on the quality and microbiological parameters of the turkey meat.