Spices act as a natural antimicrobial in chicken meat system: Evaluation of antibacterial efficacy of clove and cinnamon on common food borne pathogens in chicken meat system

Consumers generally preferred fresh meat without refrigeration. In addition, considering the prevailing conditions at the retail outlets, contamination of the meat with microbes appears unavoidable. Hence, high bacterial load is expected in the meat sold at the retail outlets mainly due to lack of awareness towards hygienic conditions and poor infrastructure in the retail outlets. Hence, practices such as incorporation of antibiotics, chemical preservatives, antimicrobial compounds have been tried. Increasing incidences of some pathogens connected to food borne illness acquiring antibiotic resistance has been a worry. This perspective has put pressure on the food industry for progressive removal of chemical preservatives and adoption of natural alternatives to achieve the goal concerning microbial food safety. Herbal spices have been added to foods since ancient times, not only as flavouring agents, but also as folk medicine and food preservatives . Scarce information is available regarding their use as antimicrobial in meat industry. Hence, this study has been designed to high light the efficacy of some of the spices as antimicrobial in chicken meat system.