Influence of cold chain interruptions on the shelf life of fresh pork and poultry

Summary In this study, the influence of fluctuations of the cold chain on the growth of Pseudomonas spp. on fresh pork and poultry and, therefore, their shelf life was evaluated. Thus, four storage trials were examined. In each trial, shelf life at the control scenario (4 °C, constant) was compared with shelf life at two dynamic scenarios including temperature shifts from 4 to 7 and to 15 °C, respectively. Overall, fresh pork and fresh poultry showed similar spoilage patterns at dynamic temperature conditions with remarkable reductions in the shelf life when short temperature upshifts occurred at the beginning of the storage. Reductions were up to 2 days (up to over 30%), although the storage time with an abusive temperature was <5% of the total storage time. As expected, scenarios with shifts to 15 °C led to higher shelf life reductions than scenarios with shifts to 7 °C for both meat types.