MODELAGEM DO CRESCIMENTO DE SALMONELLA SPP. EM CARNE DE FRANGO ARMAZENADA EM DIFERENTES CONDIÇÕES DE TEMPERATURA

Abstract

We aimed to model the growth of Salmonella spp. in ground chicken meat (CFM) under different isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. The growth data of Salmonella spp. in CFM at storage temperatures between 15 and 42 ºC were acquired from the work of Juneja et al. (2007), available in the Combase database and the Baranyi and Roberts model was fitted to the growth curves. It can be stated that the model performed very well to describe the growth of Salmonella spp. in CFM at the six temperatures evaluated, with R2 values ≥ 0.99 and Standard Errors of the fits close to zero. The Square Root model was selected to generate the growth predictions in conditions of temperature oscillation, highlighting the importance in maintaining the cold chain, because a minimal change in these conditions can cause an expressive increase in the growth of pathogenic microorganisms. It can be concluded that the application of predictive models and easy-to-use software can assist meat industries in determining food contamination, without the need to perform several experiments to determine the quality and safety of products.