Biogenic amines as bacterial quality indicators in different poultry meat species

Biogenic amines (BA) are low molecular weight substances, formed mainly by decarboxylation of specific amino acids present in food through the action of enzymes during storage produced by some microorganisms, this fact can be used to relationship BA as a bacteriological quality indicator. The objective of this work was to determine the relationship between production of BA and microorganisms (total aerobic mesophilic bacteria and Enterobacteriaceae) count in the breasts of five different poultry meats (conventional, free-range, and organic chicken, duck and quail) during storage at 4 ± 1 °C for 17 days. All poultry meats showed slight variations in the biogenic amines behavior; on the other hand, the bacterial groups followed a similar trend (a gradual increased, reaching levels ca. >6 Log CFU g−¹ after the first week of storage) during the storage. Bacterial groups had a good correlation for all BA evaluated in quail; putrescine, cadaverine, spermine and spermidine in free-range chicken; tyramine, spermine and spermidine in conventional chicken; and tyramine and spemine in organic chicken and duck meat. These findings suggest that the usefulness of BA as quality indicators depend on the poultry meat.