Thermo‐Ultrasonically Treated Whey‐Based Postbiotics From Lactiplantibacillus plantarum 299v or Bifidobacterium lactis BPL1 as Natural Antimicrobials for Chicken Breast

For postbiotics production from Lactiplantibacillus plantarum 299v (LP) or Bifidobacterium lactis BPL1 (BL), thermal (T, 55°C or 90°C) or thermo-ultrasonic (TUS, 35°C or 55°C) treatments were studied with the aim to evaluate their antimicrobial activity, in vitro, and chicken inoculated with selected pathogens. The probiotics were cultivated in a whey medium (CW)-based culture or enriched with whey with inulin (WIn). The Weibull model described adequately the probiotics inactivation, demonstrating that thermal-ultrasonic treatment at 55°C (TUS55) was more effective than T-55. The BL postbiotics treated with WIn-TUS55 exhibited the highest antimicrobial activity with a minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 41.7 mg/mL. Furthermore, chicken cubes were inoculated with 5.0 Log, CFU/g of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ATCC 14028, or Listeria monocytogenes Scott A, and then immersed for 10 min in BL postbiotics obtained from WIn-TUS55, showing a bacterial population reduction by 2.69 to 3.92 log cycles for these bacteria after 10 days of storage at 4°C. Results demonstrated that postbiotics can be potentially natural antimicrobials for poultry products. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Postbiotics of this research, obtained from probiotic fermentation of whey enriched with inulin, showed strong antimicrobial activity and were effective in reducing foodborne pathogens in chicken meat. These results suggest that postbiotics could be used as natural ingredients to improve the safety and shelf life of poultry products.