The gaseous ozonation had no effect on L* (lightness) or
b* (yellowness) until 2 days and 1 day of storage, respectively.
Our results agree with Cardenas et al. (2011), who
reported that exposure to ozone for 3 and 24 h at 0 and 4C
did not affect the L* and b* values of beef. At 3 days of
storage, the chicken breast subjected to gaseous ozone exposure
had a significantly lower L* value than the non-ozonetreated
samples. The lower L* value might be related to the
drier surface of the chicken breast subjected to gaseous
ozone. After 2 days of gaseous ozone exposure, the chicken
breast had a higher yellowness (P < 0.05) than that of
chicken breast without ozone exposure regardless of ST
inoculation.
In conclusion, ozone exposure (10 × 10−6 kg O3/m3/h) significantly
reduced the growth of ST, total aerobic and
anaerobic bacteria in ST-inoculated chicken breast samples
during 3 days of storage. Ozone exposure significantly
increased the TBARS values. However, the TBARS values of
the samples were regarded as acceptable until the end of
storage. A lower level of redness was observed in samples
under ozone exposure. The CAT and GSH-Px activities
decreased with an increase in storage time. Ozone exposure
slightly reduced the CAT activity from day 2 to day 3 of
storage and the GSH-Px activity on day 3 of storage. In this
study, we did not include chicken breast samples that were
not inoculated with ST to evaluate the growth of bacteria,
and this might weakened the statistical analysis of bacterial
counts.