Abstract
Potent and food-safe antibacterial chemicals capable of decontaminating carcass surfaces have been researched for a long time due to their great value for the quality and shelf life of the meat. The aim of current study is to test the antibacterial effect of lactic acid (LA) and acetic acid (AA) spray treatments using three concentrations (1, 1.5 and 2 %) on the aerobic plate count, Enterobacteriacae count, coliform count, and Staphylococcus count of fresh sheep carcasses surface after 20 minutes of spraying. Results of the investigated bacteriological parameters showed significant reductions after being exposed to organic acids, especially Gram negative bacteria (Enterobacteriacae) which showed greater sensitivity to the used organic acids than Gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus), where greater concentration gave greater reduction in the bacterial counts. Moreover, spray wash of lactic acid resulted in higher reduction of bacterial counts on meat surface than acetic acid. From the obtained results, organic acids showed safe, simple, efficient, cheap, and highly effective modality of meat decontamination, on addition, application of lactic acid 2.0% spray showed higher anti-bacterial effect, therefore, it is recommended to improve safety of sheep carcasses for industrial scales.