Experimental Studying the Effect of Propionibacterium and Acetic Acid on Candida Albicans Contaminating Chicken Fillet in Chilling Conditions

Raw meat spoilage by yeasts is a significant problem that is a consequence of many yeast species growth in the product including Candida albicans. Candida albicans utilizes food components and are transformed into many metabolic end products leading to sensory, chemical and physical properties changes with especial reference to the health impacts on the consumer's health. Therefore, the current experimental study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effect of two vital food additives (Propionibacterium and acetic acid) at four different concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.5 and 5%) on C. albicans including recording their impact on the sensory characters of the treated chicken fillet samples in chilling conditions (4±1OC): After physical and microbial examination for nine days of storage, results showed significant improvement in the sensory characters of the treated samples, especially with increasing the concentration of the tested additives when compared with the control untreated samples which was spoiled at the 9th day of inoculation. Regarding with the anti-C. albicans effect of the tested materials, in general, C. albicans showed higher reduction percent with increasing the concentration of the inoculated additives; furthermore, the treated samples with 2.5% and 5.0% acetic acid, after nine days of inoculation, showed more reduction in C. albicans counts (70.7% and 87.2%, respectively) than the treated samples with Propionibacterium of the same concentration (41.4 and 52.7%, respectively): Referring to the obtained results, Propionibacterium and acetic acid of the 2.5% and 5.0% concentration could be considered a good choice for preservation and enhancing quality of chilled chicken fillet, and may be recommended for its usage in chicken fillet preservation as safe and easy applied food additives.