A method to assess the bacterial content of refrigerated meat.

A new method has been developed to estimate the levels of gram-negative bacteria on refrigerated meat. The method is based on the aminopeptidase activity of these bacteria, which cleaves L-alanine-p-nitroanilide to yield p-nitroaniline, which is easily determined spectrophotometrically. This method allows the determination of levels around 10(6) to 10(7) CFU cm-2 in about 3 h. Because of the yellow color of p-nitroaniline, bacterial loads around 10(7) CFU cm-2 develop a color intense enough to be detected with the naked eye.