Postharvest intervention technologies for safety enhancement of meat and meat based products; a critical review

Globally, the demand for safe, healthy and nutritious meat and allied products possesses improved taste with extended shelf life is mounting. Microbial safety is among the imperative challenges that prevails in meat products because they provide an ideal medium for the growth of microorganisms particularly pathogenic bacteria. The incidence of these microbes can result quality deterioration of products leading towards food borne diseases when consumed by peoples. Several preservation technologies like chemical and biological interventions are effective to retard or inactivate the growth of micro-organisms most commonly related to food-borne diseases. Despite these, innovative approaches like hydrostatic pressure processing, active packaging, pulse electric field, hurdle approach and use of natural antimicrobials can be deployed to enhance the safety of meat and meat products. The objective of review is to describe the current approaches and developing technologies for enhancing safety of meat and allied meat products.