Enhancing Poultry Meat Hygiene with Essential Oils: A Moroccan Perspective

Ready-to-eat food has been growing daily, mainly due to changing consumer habits demanding more convenience foods. However, they pose a health problem because of their microbial and physical–chemical instability during storage. This work aims to identify the conservative effect of essential oils. For this study, eight essential oils were selected and applied to turkey meat purchased from a local poultry seller. The essential oils are applied in the form of Moroccan marinade, sprayed alone, and in atmospheric application. The microbiological analyses are performed to investigate the impact of the concentration effect to assess the preservative effect. The results of microbiological analysis on turkey meat preserved in the presence of essential oils in marinade show a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the number of bacteria counted compared to the control until the last day of storage. In the case of the essential oil in atmospheric application, the number of bacteria is higher than that in the sprayed samples. In fact, in the control, the average load increases with the storage time. These results suggest a favorable outcome in consumer health safety. The application of those essential oils in maintaining the safety of meat stored at refrigeration temperature will be interesting.