Reduction in pathogenic load of wheat by tempering with saline organic acid solutions at different seasonal temperatures.

Reduction in pathogenic load of wheat by tempering with saline organic acid solutions at different seasonal temperatures. Int J Food Microbiol. 2019 Oct 22;313:108381 Authors: Sabillón L, Stratton J, Rose D, Bianchini A Abstract As a raw agricultural commodity, wheat is exposed to microbial contamination; therefore, enteric pathogens may be among its microbiota creating a food safety risk in milled products. This research evaluates (1) the effectiveness of organic acids dissolved in saline solutions to reduce the counts of pathogenic microorganisms in soft and hard wheat, and also investigates the effect of seasonal temperature on (2) survivability of pathogens in wheat kernels and on (3) pathogen inactivation during tempering with saline organic acid solutions. Wheat samples were inoculated with cocktails of either 5 serovars of Salmonella enterica, 5 E. coli O157:H7 or 6 non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) strains to achieve a concentration of ~7 log CFU/g. Inoculated samples were allowed to stand for 7-days at temperatures (2.0, 10.8, 24.2, 32 °C) corresponding to those experienced during winter, spring/fall, and summer (average and maximum) in the main wheat growing regions in the state of Nebraska, USA. Besides water, solutions containing acid (acetic or lactic 2.5% or 5.0% v/v) and NaCl (~26% w/v) were used for tempering the wheat to 15.0% (soft) and 15.5% (hard) moisture at the different seasonal temperatures. Th...
Source: International Journal of Food Microbiology - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Int J Food Microbiol Source Type: research