Shelf-life extension of chicken meat using gelatin-chitosan film containing cinnamon essential oil at refrigeration condition

Antimicrobial packaging is an innovative active packaging, especially for meat and meat products. The present study has been carried out with the objective of prolonging the shelf life of chicken meat by using gelatin-chitosan (GC) film containing different concentrations of Cinnamon zeylanicum essential oil (CZEO) (0, 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9% v/v) at the refrigerated condition for 12 days. The obtained results indicated that the microbial count of samples wrapped with the films incorporated with the CZEO was significantly lower than control and remained below the acceptable limit of meat (7 log CFU/g). The total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N) was 7.11 mg/100 g and after 6 days reached 30.18 mg/100 g in control, whereas it was lower than 25 mg/100 g for samples wrapped with GC films containing 0.6% and 0.9% CZEO. Compared with the control sample, the levels of peroxide value (POV) of the wrapped samples with GC films incorporated CZEO at 0.3%, 0.6 and 0.9% were decreased by 2.07, 3.23, and 3.4 meq peroxide oxygen/1000 g lipid, respectively, at the end of storage time. As a result, the integration of CZEO into GC film can extend the shelf life of the chicken meat in refrigerated conditions for at least 12 days without any unfavorable organoleptic properties.