1. Introduction
The elimination or reduction of microbial contamination of meat and
its products is closely related to the economic, quality and health impacts
caused by the manufacture of this kind of food (Armitage, 1997).
Several methods are available for microbiological decontamination of
meat, but the use of heat-based technologies (e.g., pasteurization) still
remains as an important process in meat industry (Chen et al., 2012).
Pasteurization is a thermal treatment broadly used in food industry
based on the use of specific time–temperature relation required to
inactivate pathogenic and deteriorating microorganisms according to
the physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of food (Sun,
2006). Despite its effectiveness on microorganisms, pasteurization
could lead to nutrient loss, development of undesirable flavors and
also deterioration of functional properties of foods leading to a careful
adjustment of intensity, time and temperature of treatment (Chemat,
Zill e, & Khan, 2011). Therefore, in addition to disinfection step, the
reduction of processing impact on quality of meat is desirable and alternative
or auxiliary processes have been developed in order to overcome