Identification of Microbial Isolates from Vacuum‐Packaged Ground Pork Irradiated at 1 kGy

Bacterial cultures from irradiated (1 kGy) and nonirradiated, vacuum‐packaged ground pork held at 5°C were isolated and characterized over a 12‐day storage period. The initial flora of the meat was composed mostly of Pseudomonas sp. and Enterobacter sp. Although the microflora of nonirradiated samples gradually shifted from Gram‐negative to Gram‐positive microorganisms, 76% of the isolates were characterized as Gram‐negative at the onset of spoilage (9 days at 5°C). In contrast, the irradiated ground pork microflora was mainly Gram‐positive (66%) shortly after irradiation and increased to 97% after 9 days at 5°C. A total of 720 isolates were identified to genus.