Firefox https://www.sciencedirect.

com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996921003902

Effect of chitosan coating incorporated with

oregano or cinnamon essential oil on the
bacterial diversity and shelf life of roast
duck in modified atmosphere packaging
,,,,,,,

https://doi.org/��.����/j.foodres.����.������
Get rights and content

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of chitosan edible coating containing
0.15% oregano essential oil (OEO) or 0.60% cinnamon essential oil (CEO) on the quality
characteristics and dynamic changes in the bacterial community of roast duck slices
under modified atmosphere packaging (MAP, 30% CO2/70% N2) during 21 days of storage
at 2 ± 2 °C. The results showed that the application of chitosan coating (CH) alone
inhibited the growth of microorganisms and prevented lipid oxidation throughout
storage. Moreover, the storage stability was further improved by including OEO or CEO,
which lowered (P < 0.05) values for total viable count (TVC), Enterobacteriaceae,
2-thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-
N). Based on the microbiological results, the shelf-life of CH-OEO and CH-CEO treated
roast duck slices was prolonged by at least 7 days compared to that of the control. In
addition, packaging types applied in this study played a major role in the bacterial
community development. Notably, Vibrio spp. were the most predominant bacteria in all
samples, when TVC values approached the shelf-life threshold, suggesting that this
bacterium may be the main contributor to the spoilage of roast duck. The growth
inhibition of Vibrio spp. in the CH-OEO and CH-CEO treatments during the early period of
chilled storage might be the reason for the extension of the shelf life. Taken together, CH
incorporated with OEO or CEO could be developed as prospective edible packaging
materials to preserve roast duck meat.

1 of 6 2023-11-03, 2:57 PM
Firefox https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996921003902

Graphical abstract

Download : Download high-res image (���KB)

Download : Download full-size image

Introduction

Roast duck is one of the favorite meats desired by consumers in China due to its unique
flavor and its’ high palatability (Zhou et al., 2016, Liu et al., 2019). Considering the fact
that roast meat is susceptible to microbial spoilage due to its rich nutrient density and
high moisture, thermal processing has been widely used as a secondary sterilization
method in the roast duck processing industry after vacuum packaging. Albeit with
extended shelf life, the changes in organoleptic properties by thermal preservation
methods may affect consumer satisfaction (Huang et al., 2020, Huang et al., 2020).
Considering these issues, the development of novel non-thermal deactivation methods
for roast duck preservation is required to assure its quality.

One possible alternative to the aforementioned problems is the application of modified

atmosphere packaging (MAP), especially, utilizing a CO2/N2 atmosphere which is suitable
for the preservation of cooked meat products (Huang et al., 2020). According to our
previous research (Chen et al., 2020), the microbial deterioration of roast duck was
significantly inhibited when stored in MAP (30% CO2/70% N2). However, the bacteriostatic
effect of CO2 is limited, thus, a number of studies have been undertaken using natural
preservatives as another hurdle under MAP (CO2/N2) to limit bacterial growth (Guo et al.,
2020, Latou et al., 2014).

There is a growing interest in the use of bio-based edible films or coating in the research

2 of 6 2023-11-03, 2:57 PM
Firefox https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996921003902

field of meat packaging, due to increasing concerns by consumers about adverse effects
of chemical preservatives (Kumar, Mukherjee, & Dutta, 2020). Among them, chitosan has
been successfully used in the food industry, which is a natural carbohydrate copolymer
derived from the deacetylation of chitin (Kumar et al., 2020). Many studies have
documented that it has antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, and has potential for
use in various meat products (Dong et al., 2020, Hassanzadeh et al., 2017, Liu et al., 2019,
Pires et al., 2018). In addition, chitosan also can be used as a carrier to transport natural
bioactive compounds (e.g. plant essential oils), through which preservation performance
can be further enhanced when incorporated with essential oils such as oregano essential
oil (OEO) and cinnamon essential oil (CEO) (Kim et al., 2018, Pabast et al., 2018). Several
studies have reported the preservative effects of chitosan in combination with OEO or
CEO for poultry products (Pavelková et al., 2014, Petrou et al., 2012). Also, Ghaderi-
Ghahfarokhi, Barzegar, Sahari, Gavlighi, and Gardini (2017) found a positive effect of
cinnamon essential oil incorporated chitosan nanoparticles on the shelf life of beef
patties.

However, to our knowledge, the application of chitosan coating incorporated with OEO or
CEO in roast duck slices has not been reported. Based on the results of sensory evaluation
and total viable counts in preliminary experiments, the optimal concentrations of
oregano and cinnamon essential oils suitable for use with 30% CO2-MAP were established
as 0.15% (v/v) and 0.60% (v/v) of the coating mixture, respectively. Therefore, the
objective of this study was to investigate the effect of chitosan coating with either 0.15%
OEO or 0.60% CEO on quality and shelf life of roast duck under 30% CO2-MAP.
Additionally, the microbial community diversity was also monitored during refrigerated
storage by high-throughput sequencing technology.

Section snippets

Preparation of coating solutions

The chitosan coating solutions were prepared by dissolving 0.1 g chitosan (80–95%
deacetylation; Sinopsin group chemical reagent co. Ltd., China) in 100 mL acetic acid
(0.5 %v/v) using magnetic stirring. After adding 3 g/L glycerol as a plasticizer and stirring
for 10 min, 0.5% Tween 80 (w/v) was added as a surfactant to 0.15% OEO (v/v) or 0.60%
CEO (v/v) (do terra Shanghai trading co., Ltd., China) treatment with continuous agitating

3 of 6 2023-11-03, 2:57 PM
Firefox https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996921003902

for 30 min.…

Sample preparation

For this study, 42 roast ducks (cooked using…

Plate counts

The interaction of storage time and packaging treatment had a significant impact on the
TVC (P < 0.05, Table 1). The initial TVC count was 3.38 log CFU/g, which then increased in
the four treatments at different rates. Compared with control samples, the CH treatment
exhibited an effective inhibition on the growth of TVC between days 7 and 11, due to its
polycationic properties. Considering the value of 5 log CFU/g, as an acceptable upper
limit for cooked meat products according to GB 2726-2016, …

Conclusion

This study provides the first assessment of the effect of chitosan edible coating
incorporated with 0.15% OEO or 0.60% CEO on the meat quality of roast duck slices. The
results show that the combination of both essential oils with chitosan effectively
retarded the quality deterioration of roast duck by preventing microbial proliferation
(TVC and Enterobacteriaceae), inhibiting lipid oxidation, decreasing total volatile basic
nitrogen production, compared to samples without coating. Moreover,…

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Xue Chen: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Validation,

Visualization, Writing - original draft. Wenwen Chen: Investigation, Formal analysis,
Data curation, Writing - original draft. Xiao Lu: Formal analysis, Investigation,
Methodology. Yanwei Mao: Methodology, Data curation, Visualization. Xin Luo:
Resources, Methodology, Data curation, Funding acquisition. Guoxing Liu: Methodology,
Writing - review & editing. Lixian Zhu: Conceptualization, Writing - review &…

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.…

4 of 6 2023-11-03, 2:57 PM
Firefox https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996921003902

Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by National Key Research and Development Projects
(2016YFD040150503), and funds of Shandong “Double Tops” Program (SYL2017XTTD12).
Thanks to Dr David Hopkins (NSW DPI) for providing feedback on the paper.…

Recommended articles

References (43)

M. Abdallah et al.
Improving the sensory, physicochemical and microbiological quality of
pastirma (A traditional dry cured meat product) using chitosan coating
LWT-Food Science and Technology (����)

C. Agrimonti et al.
Antimicrobial activity of cellulosic pads amended with emulsions of essential
oils of oregano, thyme and cinnamon against microorganisms in minced beef
meat
International Journal of Food Microbiology (����)

F.T. Akinyemi et al.

Dynamic distribution of gut microbiota during embryonic development in
chicken
Poultry Science (����)

C.C. Balamatsia et al.

Possible role of volatile amines as quality-indicating metabolites in modified
atmosphere-packaged chicken fillets: Correlation with microbiological and
sensory attributes
Food Chemistry (����)

S. Bhavaniramya et al.
Role of essential oils in food safety: Antimicrobial and antioxidant applications
Grain & Oil Science and Technology (����)

5 of 6 2023-11-03, 2:57 PM
Firefox https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996921003902

X. Chen et al.
Effect of modifed atmosphere packaging on shelf life and bacterial community
of roast duck meat
Food Research International (����)

E. Chouliara et al.
Combined effect of oregano essential oil and modified atmosphere packaging
on shelf-life extension of fresh chicken breast meat, stored at 4 °C
Food Microbiology (����)

C. Dong et al.
Effects of edible chitosan coating on Harbin red sausage storage stability at
room temperature
Meat Science (����)

A.I. Doulgeraki et al.

Spoilage microbiota associated to the storage of raw meat in different
conditions
International Journal of Food Microbiology (����)

A. Duran et al.
The effect of chitosan coating and vacuum packaging on the microbiological
and chemical properties of beef
Meat Science (����)

6 of 6 2023-11-03, 2:57 PM