Ready-to-eat meats

Food items that you might consider including in your disaster supply kit include ready-to-eat meats, fruits, and vegetables canned or boxed juices, milk, and soup high-energy foods like peanut butter, jelly, low-sodium crackers, granola bars, and trail mix vitamins foods for infants or persons on special diets cookies, hard candy instant coffee, cereals, and powdered milk. 

Sodium lactate is used and approved as (1) a flavor enhancer, (2) humec-tant, and (3) pH control agent (Duxbury, 1988 Lemay et al., 2002). The salts lactate and diacetate on their own are known to exhibit antilisterial activity in RTE (ready-to-eat) meat, but enhanced inhibition has also been reported when these salts are used in combination (Mbandi and Shelef, 2002). 

Examples of active package/food systems are individually wrapped ready-to-eat meat products, or deli products, where antimicrobial agents may be initially incorporated into the packaging materials and migrate into... 

Levine, P, Rose, B., Green, S., Ransom, G., and Hill, W. 2001. Pathogen testing of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products collected at federally inspected establishments in the United States, 1990 to 1999. Journal of Food Protection 64 1188-1193. 

Tompkin, R.B. 1986. Microbiology of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products. In A.M. Pearson and T.R. Dutson (Eds.), Advances in Meat Research, Vol. 2 Meat and Poultry Microbiology, pp. 89-122. Westport, CT AVI. 

Nature, Cause, and Control of Irradiation-Induced Off-Odor in Ready-to-Eat Meat Products... 

FDA/FSIS (2003a) Control of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meat and poultry products. 9 CFR Part 430, June 2003... 

FDA/FSIS (2003b) Food and Drug Administration Food Safety and Inspection Service February, 10th 2003- Draft FSIS Risk Assessment for Listeria in Ready-to-eat-Meat and Poultry product Fisher CW, Lee D, Dodge BA, Hamman KM, Robbins JB, Martin SE (2000) Influence of catalase and superoxide dismutase on ozone inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes. Appl Environ Microbiol 66(4) 1405-1409... 

Seman DL, Quickert SC, Borger AC, Meyer JD (2008) Inhibition of Listeria monocytogenes growth in cured ready-to-eat meat products by use of sodium benzoate and sodium diacetate. J Food Prot 71(7) 1386-1392... 

Hayman et al. (2004) demonstrated that high-pressure processing (600 MPa, 20°C, 3 min) could extend the refrigerated shelf life of ready-to-eat meats and reduce L. monocytogenes by more than 4-log CFU/g. Besides, counts of aerobic and anaerobic mesophiles, lactic acid bacteria. Listeria spp.. Staphylococci, Brochothrix thermosphacta, conforms, and fungi were also undetectable when stored at 4°C for 98 days. Moreover, consumer acceptability and sensory quality of the product was found to be very high. 

Hayman, M.M., Baxter, L, O Riordan, P.J., and Stewart, C.M. 2004. Effects of high-pressure processing on the safety, quality, and shelf life of ready-to-eat meats. Journal of Food Protection 67 1709-1718. 

Most meats are cooked before eating, but the recommended internal temperature is 70 °C. Results of work by Rodriguez-Palacios et al. (2007), albeit in buffer rather than in meat, suggest that C. difficile strains from meat would survive cooking. This is to say nothing of ready-to-eat meat products, which are also contaminated with C. difficile (Songer et ah, 2009), and salad products (Bakri et ah, 2009), most of which are consumed raw. 

USDA-FSIS (United States Department of Agricultnre/Food Safety and Inspection Service). (2003). Control of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meat and poultry products Final Rule. 9 CFR Part 430 Federal Register 6S(109), 34207-34254. Available from http //www. fsis. usda. gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/97-013F.htm. Accessed 04.01.14. 

Cutter, C. N. and Miller, B. J. 2004. Incorporation of nisin into a collagen film retains antimicrobial activity against Listeria monocytogenes and Brochothrix thermosphacta associated with a ready-to-eat meat product. Journal of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, 68(4) 64-77. 

Potassium lactate, sodium lactate, and calcium lactate are the neutralized salts of LA. Potassium lactate is used in many fresh and cooked meat products for shelf life control, color preservation, and reduction of sodium content. Sodium lactate has a mild saline taste and is therefore suitable for flavor enhancement in meat products. Sodium lactate is being produced in solution as well as dry. Calcium lactate is popular for fortification and improved texture in emulsified meat products like frankfurters. Ready-to-eat meat and poultry products commonly contain sodium or potassium lactate to control Listeria monocytogenes. LA is also present in wheat beers, especially lambic, due to the activity of Pediococcus damnosus. 

Miller, B.J. and Cutter, C.N. (2000). Incorporation of nisin into collagen films retains antimicrobial activity against Listeria monocytogenes and Brochothrix ther-mosphacta associated with ready-to-eat meat products. Journal of Association Food Drug Official, 68(4), 64-77. 

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