3.2. Sensory changes of the turkey samples stored under MAP in the absence and/or presence of antimicrobials — Shelf life of products
The results of the sensory evaluation (odor and taste acceptance) of cooked turkey samples, untreated (T) and treated (T-RO, T-CH and T-CH-RO) are presented (Fig. 2a–b). Odor and taste scores of turkey, irrespective of treatment, showed a similar pattern of decreasing acceptance (Fig. 2a–b). Both odor and taste scores of the control samples were significantly lower (P < 0.05) as compared to the treated samples on day 12 of storage (Fig. 2a–b). Generally, the taste attribute was a more sensitive parameter than odor, therefore, in our study the taste attribute was used for the determination of the shelf-life of cooked T, T-RO, T-CH and T-CH-RO samples (Fig. 2b). Interestingly, TPC and LAB counts exceeding the limit value of 7 log cfu/g in T and T-RO turkey samples coincided with low taste scores (5 and 6, respectively) on days 12 and 18 of storage.