Factors affecting the shelf life of chilled poultry: packaging and storage temperature

The change-over from the production of deep-frozen eviscerated poultry to chilled eviscerated poultry has renewed people's interest in factors affecting the shelf life of these products. In this paper, shelf life is only defined by microbiological criteria. Recent literature data on effects of packaging are lacking, only some very specific applications being mentioned. Chilled eviscerated poultry is that slaughtered poultry, which is stored and sold at temperatures not below - 1 degree C. The scalding temperature during the slaughtering process is mostly below + 55 degree C. With this temperature the epidermis of the carcasses remains unimpaired after the plucking process and protects the carcases against untimely spoilage and drying-out.