The Effect of Food Grade Polyphosphates on the Microbial Population of Chicken Meat

MOST of the previous work with polyphosphate salts in meat and meat products has been concerned with moisture retention and weight control (Schermerhorn, 1963; and Thomson et al., 1963). An article by Mahon (1962) and recent work by Spencer et al. (1962) and Mahon (1963) indicated that polyphosphate salts may also prove to be useful in altering the microbial population of poultry meat. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of two commercial blends of polyphosphate salts on the micro-organisms found on broiler carcasses. Experiments 1 and 2. For each of these experiments, 36 broilers were processed in the University poultry processing laboratory. The broilers were dispatched by severing the jugular vein. After a two-minute bleeding period, the birds were sub-scalded (60°C.) in a batch-type scalding machine for a 45 second period. Then the birds were transferred to an automatic cyclomatic picking machine for one-minute,…