Antimicrobial Activity of Some Essential Oils as Natural Preservatives in Minced Meat

Abstract

This work aimed to investigate the preservation efficiency of some essential oils (thyme, cumin, and rosemary) in minced meat during refrigerated storage. The antimicrobial analysis showed a significant effect of thyme E. coli O157:H7, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and Salmonella typhimurium against compared to cumin and rosemary. Meanwhile, there were no significant differences in the antimicrobial activity between thyme, cumin and rosemary against Listeria monocytogenes. These oils were applied with the concentrations chosen as the best concentrations, with a higher concentration being chosen (thyme 0.1 and 0.25%), (cumin 0.3 and 0.6%) and (rosemary 0.3 and 0.6%) on a sample of minced beef, as natural preservatives to determine their effect of shelf life, chemical, and microbial properties of minced meat when been stored at 4 °C for 14 days. Obtained results showed that treated samples revealed decreasing values in chemical, microbial and improving sensory properties than untreated samples (control). Also, thyme oil at 0.25% showed the most effective treatment among other oils at different concentrations.