Consumer dietary safety of carvacrol-applied chicken meat: Exposure assessment, microbial modulation, and chemical profile changes

Ulema, N.T. and Barel, M. (2026) Consumer dietary safety of carvacrol-applied chicken meat: Exposure assessment, microbial modulation, and chemical profile changes. ACTA ALIMENTARIA: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE, 55 (3). pp. 531-541. ISSN 0139-3006

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Abstract

Carvacrol, a phenolic monoterpene from oregano ( Origanum spp.), is increasingly investigated as a natural antimicrobial in poultry preservation, yet its simultaneous effects on the chemical composition, microbiota, and consumer dietary safety of treated meat remain uncharacterised. This study characterised GC-MS profile changes in carvacrol-applied chicken breast, thigh, and wing tissues, screened microbiota shifts by using exploratory 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and estimated consumer dietary exposure using the Margin of Exposure (MOE) framework. GC-MS analysis showed that phenolics accounted for >98% of detected metabolites in treated tissues, proportionally displacing alkanes and sterols within the constant-sum profile. Microbiota profiling indicated selective compositional trends without substantial loss of alpha diversity (Shannon: 4.26–4.45), including enrichment of Metabacillus spp. and reduced relative abundance of Staphylococcus and Klebsiella . Exposure modelling using consumption data from 193 adults yielded estimated daily intakes of 0.383 and 0.612 mg kg −1 bw day −1 under typical and higher intake scenarios, with corresponding MOE values of 522 and 327, both well above the EFSA threshold of 100, indicating low toxicological concern. Carvacrol application at 1,000 mg kg −1 reshapes the chemical profile and selectively modulates the microbiota of chicken meat while remaining within established consumer dietary safety margins; culture-based verification of antimicrobial efficacy is warranted.

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