Growth and Survival of Salmonella enterica and Listeria Monocytogenes on Fresh-cut Produce and Their Juice Extracts: Impacts and Interactions of Food Matrices and Temperature Abuse Conditions

This study evaluated the survival and growth of Salmonella enterica, and Listeria monocytogenes in relation to temperature abuse variations, and food matrices. Fresh-cut cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, pineapple, and radish contaminated with S. enterica and L. monocytogenes were subjected to cold (4 °C), chronic temperature abuse at 8 and 12 °C, and acute temperature abuse (35 °C for 2 hours followed by 4 °C for the remainder 7-day storage). Pathogen growth potential in the juice extracts from each product was further compared to that on the respective cut produce. Under chronic temperature abuse, three different pathogen growth patterns emerged on five test products: both S. enterica and L. monocytogenes grew significantly on cut cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon at 8 and 12 °C; but only survived on cut radish, and even declined in population on cut pineapple at the same conditions. Specifically, S. enterica populations reached up to 5.28 log CFU/g and L. monocytogenes up to 7.77 log CFU/g after 7 days at 12 °C. During cold storage at 4 °C, significantly different growth patterns were also observed between S. enterica and L. monocytogenes on cut melons, where S. enterica population remained unchanged during the 7-day storage while L. monocytogenes grew continuously. In the juice extracts, S. enterica and L. monocytogenes reached maximum population density in melon juices, but failed to grow in pineapple juice, similar to the growth patterns on cut melon and pineap...
Source: Food Control - Category: Food Science Source Type: research