Ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products are defined by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS, 2020) as being entirely cooked before packaging with no further cooking required by the consumer. Products in this category include hot dogs, luncheon meats, sausage, and other deli-type products (USDA, 2023). Unfortunately, these products are potentially vulnerable to contamination with foodborne pathogens after the cooking step and before packaging. These pathogens, including Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus, have been implicated in several foodborne illness outbreaks around the world (Ward et al., 1997; Sim et al., 2002; Mead et al., 2006; Marler, 2022). One significant outbreak in Canada in 2008, traced back to RTE meats contaminated with L. monocytogenes, resulted in 57 reported cases and 22 deaths (Canadian Food Inspection Agency, 2009). These RTE meat products are also potentially perishable and subject to eventual spoilage, primarily from microbiological causes (Bodie et al., 2024). When RTE meat products are heated to a temperature of 65°C to 75°C, most vegetative cells are killed, and it is recontamination after heat treatment that determines safety and shelf-life (Borch et al., 1996). During storage, environmental factors such as temperature, gaseous atmosphere, pH, and NaCl will select certain bacteria and affect their growth rate and activity (Gill and Molin, 1991; Blickstad and Molin, 1983).