4. Conclusions
The combination of ozone (0.6 ppm for 10 min) and lyophilisation would be useful in enhancing the microbial properties of meat, in achieving a sensory acceptable product, as well as, in extending the shelf-life of raw chicken breast meat up to 8 months. On the contrary, the samples treated with lyophilisation alone had a shelf-life of only 4 months. Likewise, the 0.4 ppm exposure to ozone had a negative effect on increasing both the hardness and chewiness of chicken meat. Further research work would be needed to determine the optimum conditions of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) for maximizing the shelf-life extension of ozonated freeze-dried chicken meat.