The duration of cooled turkey meat storage at different ways of packaging

The research objective was to define expiration date of carcasses of turkeys and their parts at stor-age in the refrigerator under the temperature from 0 to +2 °C and packed in the changed atmosphere and under vacuum. The researches were conducted in JSC ‘Evrodon’ of Oktyabrsky district, Rostov Region. In the tests the of slaughtered poultry cooling and division received right after it on parts of semi-carcass, quarter, breast, thigh, drumstick, wings of the turkey were used. The carcasses and parts of carcasses were packed in the conditions of changed atmosphere on the devices Henkelman Polar 2-85 and Seal Pack-A7-Line 3. Vacuum packages and rigid trays stacked in the box from corrugated fibre-board and were stored in the refrigerator. The tem-perature of samples in the refrigerator was controlled by means of thermometers of Paderno 414 model. The researches were conducted according to the regulation 4.2.1847-04 of "Sanitary and epidemiologic assessment of justification of expiration dates and storage conditions of foodstuff". As a result of con-ducted research it was established that meat and meat products of the poultry conformed to the re-quirements of high-quality fresh products, pathogenic microorganisms were not found out. The period of storage of turkey meat under vacuum at the tempera-ture from 0 to +2 °C made 15 days, and in changed atmosphere - 10 days, therefore the storage of cooled meat of the turkey under vacuum was most expedient. Organoleptic and microbiological indica-tors of carcasses of the turkeys and their parts (semi-carcasses, breast, fillet, thigh, drumstick, wings) packed under vacuum after 15 days of storage at the temperature from 0 to +2 °C corresponded to stand-ard values confirming the freshness of meat of tur-key. Proteinaceous quality indicator increased in the parts of carcass which remained under vacuum. So, the difference in comparison with storage in 10, 12 and 15 days in the changed atmosphere was re-vealed: on breasts of the turkey - 0.42; 0.5; 0.47 mg/%; on hips - 0.04; 0.09; 0.07 mg/% respectively.