Spoilage and preservation of meat: a general appraisal and potential of lactic acid bacteria as biological preservatives

Spoilage of meat has remained a serious challenge in developing countries, including Nigeria, for decades. This has been due to poor storage systems in such countries where necessary facilities that could help promote preservation are unavailable. Where available, unsteady power supply necessary to maintain such facilities has constituted a serious problem, thereby rendering them to function below their maximum capacity. Furthermore, the ambient temperature in developing countries that are in tropical regions is usually about 30 o C or above; most spoilage organisms have been found to have their optimum growth temperature within such temperature range. In the present review, a general appraisal of meat spoilage and the potential of lactic acid bacteria in its biopreservation are discussed, with the view to suggesting a way to reduce wastage normally associated with meat due to spoilage. This could be of tremendous importance in developing countries, such as Nigeria, where procurement and maintenance of storage facilities have remained a matter of serious concern for many meat processors till date.