Potassium lactate and bacteria growth during cooling of cooked turkey
What it found
Adding 2% potassium lactate to cooked ground turkey strongly limited the growth of a harmful spore-forming bacterium during slow cooling.
This was tested in food samples, not in people.
What they found
Bacteria growth without treatment
In plain turkey samples with no potassium lactate, bacteria numbers rose by 3.8 to 4.7 log CFU/g during both cooling times.
Effect of 1% potassium lactate
Adding 1% potassium lactate reduced the rise to between 2.5 and 2.7 log CFU/g in lab tests on turkey samples.
Effect of 2% potassium lactate
Adding 2% potassium lactate kept the increase very small, at just 0.56 to 0.70 log CFU/g in these food tests.
Comparison to untreated samples
Compared with plain turkey, 2% potassium lactate slowed growth by 2.65 log CFU/g over 10 hours and by 4.21 log CFU/g over 12 hours.
What the authors conclude
- They conclude that adding 2% potassium lactate blocks the growth of Clostridium perfringens in cooked uncured turkey during extended cooling.
- The authors suggest potassium lactate can replace sodium nitrite for this purpose.
How it was done
U.S. rules set cooling limits for meat to stop spore-forming bacteria from growing. Potassium lactate is known to block similar bacteria, so researchers wanted to test it on Clostridium perfringens in uncured turkey.
Researchers added spores of three strains of Clostridium perfringens to 100-g samples of ground turkey breast. They mixed in 0%, 1%, or 2% potassium lactate, cooked the meat to 71 °C, and cooled it over 10 or 12 hours down to 4 °C. They then measured how much the bacteria grew.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This work tested bacteria in food samples, not in animals or people. It cannot show what happens when someone eats meat treated with potassium lactate.
- It only looked at one type of bacterium in turkey breast, so results may differ for other meats or germs.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA; University of California- Davis, USA
The paper
- Title
- Inhibition of Clostridium perfringens growth by potassium lactate during an extended cooling of cooked uncured ground turkey breasts
- Type
- Study
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Kennedy KM, Milkowski AL, Glass KA (2013). Inhibition of Clostridium perfringens growth by potassium lactate during an extended cooling of cooked uncured ground turkey breasts. Journal of food protection. doi:10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-13-106PubMed 24215704DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error