INDU*
GGDSD (Goswami Ganesh Dutta Sanatan Dharma) College, Sector 32, Chandigarh-160 030, India
*(e-mail : indumehtasdc@ gmail.com; Mobile : 9855210090)
(Received : February 14, 2019; Accepted : April 20, 2019)
ABSTRACT
Every raw food has a limited shelf life, as it starts getting degraded by the microbial action. Microbial action on raw meat was observed. The shelf life of any raw material can be increased by using preservatives. As some kitchen ingredients can be used as natural preservatives and natural preservatives are safe to use; five kitchen ingredients were used i. e. lemon, vinegar, citric acid, salt and sugar to see the inhibitory action of these kitchen ingredients on microbial growth. In this study, mashed raw meat was kept at 37°C for 48 h. Control was without any preservative, whereas test samples were treated with five different preservatives. This study showed that out of five natural preservatives used in this study, vinegar was found to be most effective as after incubating raw meat at 37°C, it inhibited the microbial growth to a great extent as compared to other natural preservatives. However, sugar and salt were least effective in inhibiting the microbial growth. Natural preservatives are safe to use and easily available thus can be used to increase the shelf life of raw meat.
Key words : Natural preservatives, shelf life, microbial action, lemon, vinegar, salt, sugar, meat, kitchen ingredients