Table 1 shows the bacterial counts obtained daily from the
chicken breast inoculated with ST exposed to gaseous ozone
during the 3-day storage. The ST count (7.24 log cfu/g) in
the ozone treatment group at 1 day was reduced by 0.4 log
cfu/g compared with the initial count in same group,
whereas there was a 0.2 log cfu/g increase in the
nontreatment group (P > 0.05). The ST counts in the ozone
treatment group at each time point were significantly lower
than those in the nontreatment group. After 1 day, the ST
counts in ozone treatment and nontreatment groups
increased throughout the experiment period compared with
the initial counts (ozone treatment, P > 0.05; ozone
nontreatment, P < 0.05); however, it was clear that the
increase of ST counts in the ozone treatment group gradually
lagged behind the counts in the nontreatment group
over time (P < 0.05). This finding indicates that ozone
exposure continuously eliminated ST on the surface of the
chicken breast samples. Similar to the ST results, gaseous
ozone exposure significantly reduced total aerobic and
anaerobic bacterial counts compared with those of the
nontreatment groups at each time point during 3 days of
storage. Total aerobic (7.26 log cfu/g) and anaerobic bacterial
counts (7.43 log cfu/g) in the ozone treatment groups
were reduced by 0.83 and 0.73 log cfu/g, respectively, at 1
day (P < 0.05). After 1 day, the counts of total aerobic and
anaerobic bacteria in all groups gradually increased
(P < 0.05); however, the increase in the counts of the ozone
treatment groups lagged behind those in the nontreatment
groups during 3 days of storage (P < 0.05). At the end of the
study, the total aerobic and anaerobic bacterial counts were
significantly reduced by 1.01 and 1.07 log cfu/g by ozone
treatment