Enhancing chicken meat quality with user-friendly decontamination wipes

The unhygienic practices in retail poultry meat shops adversely affect chicken meat quality and shelf life.

To address this issue, a team of scientists from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) developed and tested the efficacy of a meat surface decontaminating solution.

The study is published in the journal Foods (Oct 2025).

The solution was prepared from deionized water, jamun leaf (Syzygium cumini) extracts, and other generally recognized as safe ingredients.

A sterile non-woven cloth soaked in the solution was applied over the meat surface as a decontamination wipe.

Treated and untreated chicken meat samples were stored at 4°C under aerobic packaging conditions, and various meat quality parameters were evaluated at daily intervals until the onset of spoilage.

The decontamination wipe significantly reduced microbial loads over the meat surface. Specifically, the wipe caused reductions in the loads of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

In addition, with longer storage intervals, the meat quality parameters changed significantly;  the treated chicken samples spoiled on day 6, whereas the control spoiled on day 5.

The study also showed that the decontamination wipe could improve the quality and shelf life of retail chicken meat without affecting the sensory quality attributes.

Citation

Talukder, S., Sen, A.R., Devadason, I.P., Biswas, A.K., Kumar, M.S., Dhanze, H., Bhilegaonkar, K.N., Hung Nguyen-Viet, Grace, D. and Deka, R.P. 2025. Enhancing chicken meat quality with user-friendly decontamination wipes. Foods 14(19): 3391.

Photo: Chickens at the Ganeshguru livestock market, Guwahati, India (ILRI/Stevie Mann)

Curated by Tezira Lore, Communication Officer, ILRI