Abstract
A study was carried out to determine the influence of ozon treatment on the shelf-life of poultry meat. The following doses of gaseous ozone were used: 0 ppm for 0 min, 10 ppm for 1 min, 10 ppm for 5 min, 10 ppm for 15 min, 100 ppm for 1 min, 100 ppm for 5 min, and 100 ppm for15 min. Treated and untreated samples were stored at 4°C for a maximum of 3 days and microbiologically examined on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd day of cold storage. The textural properties and water content were also analyzed. The present study showed that the most desirable color change was recorded after the 3rd day of storage, on the samples treated with gaseous ozone of 10 ppm for 15 min. Regardless of exposure time and the gas dose used, ozone has been shown to effectively reduce meat hardness. Although the analyzes performed had non-significant effects on water content and microbiological load during post-treatment storage at 4 °C, our findings confirmed the effectiveness of the ozone gas used on extending shelf life of the examined poultry meat by influencing their texture profile and color parameters.