Use of cloves and cinnamon essential oil to inactivate Listeria monocytogenes in ground beef at freezing and refrigeration temperatures

• Inactivation of pathogens in ground beef using Cloves and Cinnamon EOs.
• Impact of EOs in ground beef quality at freezing and refrigeration temperatures.
• Consumer's acceptability of EOs supplemented ground beef.

The need for better control of foodborne pathogens has been of paramount importance in recent years as one of the major concerns to ensure food safety. This study was aimed to determine whether Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) and Cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) derived essential oils (EOs) could be used to control Listeria monocytogenes in ground beef. When L. monocytogenes contaminated ground beef was exposed to 5% and 10% of crude and commercial clove EOs or 2.5% and 5.0% of crude and commercial cinnamon EOs and stored at refrigeration (8 °C), chilling (0 °C) temperatures for 7 days as well as at freezing (−18 °C) temperatures for 60 days, it was found that 10% clove (both crude and commercial) could completely inactivate L. monocytogenes in ground beef within 3 days of post inoculation, irrespective of storage temperature. However, 5.0% clove EOs (both crude and commercial) was not found effective in killing L. monocytogenes throughout the storage period. On the other hand, both 2.5% and 5.0% of crude and cinnamon EOs was not found effective in inactivating L. monocytogenes throughout the storage period. However, 5.0% commercial cinnamon EOs was able to reduce 3.5–4.0 log CFU/g of L. monocytogenes populations depending on the storage temperature and time. The 3.5–4.0 log CFU/g reduction of L. monocytogenes was achieved within 7 days at refrigeration and chilling temperatures but it takes 60 days while storage at freezing temperature. This finding suggested that the effectiveness of reducing L. monocytogenes populations in ground beef by chinamon EOs was influenced by storage temperature and time. On the other hand, this influence was not observed in clove EOs indicating that use of clove EOs is better in killing pathogen populations in ground beef, than that of cinnamon EOs. Hence, could be useful in controlling L. monocytogenes in ground beef meat and improve the safety of ground beef products.