Water Activity for Meat and Poultry Jerky (AN-13434-01)
Meat and poultry jerky, a popular snack, is a dried shelf-stable product. Preparation of jerky usually consists of 5 steps, namely: 1) strip preparation, 2) marination, 3) interventions such as acid drips, 4) lethality treatments, and 5) drying. The jerky process must eliminate potential hazards due to microbial contamination. The main pathogens of concern are Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli. Listeria is of particular concern because of recent outbreaks from contaminated jerky. The primary control points for eliminating microbial hazards are during the lethality and drying steps. The lethality step destroys any existing pathogens and the drying step reduces the water activity of the jerky below the critical shelf stable value of 0.85.
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