Recent Advances in Microbial Decontamination Strategies for Meat Carcasses: A Critical Review

Microbial contamination of meat carcasses remains a major challenge in global meat production systems, directly influencing food safety and consumer health. Traditional decontamination approaches, such as trimming, washing, and thermal treatment, have limitations in completely eliminating pathogens like Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in non-thermal, minimally invasive technologies that aim to preserve sensory and nutritional attributes while ensuring microbial safety. This critical review examines recent advances in meat carcass decontamination strategies, including organic acid sprays, hot water and steam pasteurization, ultraviolet (UV-C) treatment, high pressure processing (HPP), cold plasma, ozone, and bacteriophage-based biocontrol. The mechanisms, strengths, and weakness of each approach are integration of emerging technologies to achieve the highest safety standards.

کلیدواژه ها:

meat carcasses ، microbial decontamination ، non-thermal technologies ، food safety ، high pressure processing