Duck meat has been consistently reported to be at risk of contamination by fecal microorganisms throughout slaughter, processing, packaging, and distribution. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of plasma-treated water and plasma-treated citric acid on the inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enteritidis, as well as on the quality of duck skin. Each duck skin sample was washed with water, citric acid, plasma-treated water, or plasma-treated citric acid for 3 min. Among the washing solutions, plasma-treated citric acid showed the greatest reduction in the counts of E. coli O157:H7 and S. enteritidis. After plasma-treated citric acid washing, both the pH and a* value of the duck skin significantly decreased. Although the thiobarbituric acid reactive substance values of duck skin increased, the levels remained below sensory detection thresholds. In addition, no significant changes were observed in L* and b* values compared with untreated duck skin. Consequently, plasma-treated citric acid exhibited the greatest inactivation against E. coli O157:H7 and S. enteritidis on duck skin while causing minimal changes in quality parameters. These results indicate that plasma-treated citric acid has potential as an effective washing solution for microbial control in the poultry industry.
Nam et al. (Sun,) studied this question.