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Updated: Oct 9, 2025

The Effect of the Application of Thyme Essential Oil on Microbial Load During Meat Drying
Published on: March 14, 2018
Effect of Essential Oils and Vacuum Packaging on Spoilage-Causing Microorganisms of Marinated Camel Meat during
Tareq M Osaili1,2,3, Fayeza Hasan2, Anas A Al-Nabulsi3
1Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates.
Abstract:
The use of essential oils (EOs) and/or vacuum packaging (VP) with meats could increase product shelf-life. However, no studies investigating the effect of EOs and VP on camel meat background microbiota have been conducted previously. The study aimed to analyze the antimicrobial effect of essential oils (EOs) carvacrol (CA), cinnamaldehyde (CI), and thymol (TH) at 1 or 2% plus vacuum packaging (VP) on the growth of spoilage-causing microorganisms in marinated camel meat chunks during storage at 4 and 10 °C. VP is an effective means to control spoilage in unmarinated camel meat (CM) and marinated camel meat (MCM) compared to aerobic packaging (AP). However, after EO addition to MCM, maximum decreases in spoilage-causing microorganisms were observed under AP on day 7. Increasing the temperature from 4 to 10 °C under AP increased the rate of spoilage-causing bacterial growth in CM and MCM; however, EOs were more effective at 10 °C. At 10 °C the maximum reductions in total mesophilic plate counts, yeast and molds, mesophilic lactic Acid bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, and Pseudomonas spp. were 1.2, 1.4, 2.1, 3.1, and 4.8 log CFU/g, respectively. Incorporating EOs at 2% in MCM, held aerobically under temperature abuse conditions, delayed spoilage.
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