Modern Trends in Detection of Microbial Spoilage of Muscle Foods - A Review

Meat spoilage and detection is very important for meat technologists, quality control agencies, and the meat industry. Thus the microbial spoilage of meat and detection methods is widely studied. For decades microbial metabolites have been used as indicators of organoleptic spoilage of meat. Detection of spoilage by screening for microbial metabolites without identifying specific bacteria is the common approach. The ability to correlate biochemical change with microbial biomass is a complex problem. Current methods for the detection of spoilage in meats are inadequate, time consuming and labour intensive. ATP bioluminescence and fluorescent methods are already in use and are popular due to quick results. Molecular methods like multiplex PCR to detect a group of spoilage bacteria have already been tried. The concept of electronic nose using the odour sensors, conducting organic polymers and metal oxide conductors are promising method. The modified spectroscopy widely studied for detection of meat spoilage. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, electrical impedance spectroscopy, near infrared spectroscopy is some of those methods. The use of laser especially the laser speckle imaging is already put into use in this field. Latest technology introduced in the field of meat spoilage detection is the use of smart phone with different attachments. This paper briefly reviews the microbial spoilage of meat and microbial metabolites, then discusses about the currents methods for detection of spoilage and the modern upcoming methods with their potential.