Atividade antimicrobiana de óleos essenciais de origanum vulgare (orégano) e ocimum basilicum (manjericão) e sua aplicação em massa para embutido cárneo

Abstract

The search for natural additives in food has recently increased due to the negative reaction of consumers to the chemical additives intentionally added in industrialized products in order to increase their useful life. The interest in essential oils and their application in food has been increasing and this is due to its high antimicrobial potential, becoming a new perspective of use. In this context, the objective of this study was to verify the antimicrobial activity of essential oils of Origanum vulgare (Oregano) and Ocimum basilicum (basilicum), and its application in meat sausage to control undesirable microorganisms. The antimicrobial effect was analyzed by the disc-diffusion test and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against Salmonella enterica serotypes Typhimurium and Enteritidis, Escherichia coli O157: H7, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. A microbiological mass evaluation was carried out for meat sausage, experimentally contaminated with Salmonella enterica, added to the essential oils at 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% concentrations after 0, 24, 48 and 72 hours of storage at 4°C. In the disk-diffusion and CBM tests, the most effective essential oil was O. vulgare, followed by mixing the essential oils of O. vulgare and O. basilicum. O. vulgare essential oil and the mixture of the essential oils of O. vulgare and O. basilicum at the concentration of 0.5% and 1.0% were not able to eliminate S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium from the experimentally contaminated mass. However, at the concentration of 1.5%, S. Enteritidis was eliminated by both treatments and S. Typhimurium only by O. vulgare essential oil. When evaluated sensorially, the meat inlay in the concentration of 1.5% did not obtain good acceptance by the consumers. Although it had a preventive effect on the contamination of the salmonella-based pasta, the use of the essential oils studied resulted in unacceptable taste changes.