Figure 3 shows the reductions in mixed-strain Salmonella
count by an antimicrobial mixture of LAE and
carvacrol. The LAE concentration of 200 and 2,000 ppm
or carvacrol concentrations of 1% were selected based
on the prior experiments in which these compounds
when applied individually did not yield any measurable
reductions in Salmonella counts in 7% ground turkey
samples (Figure 3). The combination of 200 ppm of LAE with 1% carvacrol reduced Salmonella counts by
~1 log cfu/g, though this combined treatment did not
vary from that of control samples (P > 0.05). However,
when LAE at 2,000 ppm was mixed with 1% carvacrol,
there was a synergistic action as Salmonella counts decreased
to less than 1 log cfu/g from 7% fat ground
turkey samples from the initial challenge load of 5 log
cfu/g (P ≤ 0.05).