3.2. Effect of Humidity and Ventilation on Bacterial Growth at 26 °C
Unventilated cabinet. Under the conditions of 90, 70, and 50% RH in the unventilated test cabinet, the total number of bacteria in the meat (compared to the base value of 3.0 × 103, measured after washing in tap water, before placing in the cabinets) increased by 3.06 × 104, 1.38 × 104, and 4.9 × 103 times, respectively, after 24 h culture. Increasing the humidity from 50 to 70% RH and from 50 to 90% RH increased the bacterial growth by 2.8 and 6.2 times, respectively; increasing the humidity from 70 to 90% RH increased the bacterial growth by 2.2 times. This suggested that reducing the humidity at 26 °C reduced bacterial growth.
Comparison between ventilated cabinets and the unventilated cabinet. Ventilation significantly reduced bacterial growth under all tested humidity conditions.
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