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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Microbial and Chemical Food Safety » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #308493
Title: Modeling the survival of Salmonella on slice cooked ham as a function of apple skin polyphenols, acetic acid, oregano essential oil and carvacrol

Author
item ZHANG, QIUQIN - Nanjing Agricultural University
item Mukhopadhyay, Sudarsan
item Hwang, Cheng An
item XU, XINGLIAN - Nanjing Agricultural University
item Juneja, Vijay

Submitted to: Journal of Food Processing and Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/25/2015
Publication Date: 2/1/2015
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/61065
Citation: Zhang, Q., Mukhopadhyay, S., Hwang, C., Xu, X., Juneja, V.K. 2015. Modeling the survival of Salmonella on slice cooked ham as a function of apple skin polyphenols, acetic acid, oregano essential oil and carvacrol. Journal of Food Processing and Technology. DOI: 10.1111/jfpp.12486.

Interpretive Summary: Salmonella, a foodborne pathogen, continues to be a significant threat to the safety of ready-to-eat foods. This emphasizes the need to develop interventions for reduction of Salmonella on cooked ham. We quantified the effect of combinations of four natural antimicrobials (apple skin polyphenols, acetic acid, oregano essential oil and carvacrol) on the reduction of Salmonella on cooked ham. The predictive model developed will assist the food industry and regulatory agencies to estimate concentrations of natural antimicrobials assessed in this study to design processes to guard against Salmonella on ready-to-eat ham.

Technical Abstract: Response surface methodology was applied to investigate the combined effect of apple skin polyphenols (ASP), acetic acid (AA), oregano essential oil (O) and carvacrol (C) on the inactivation of Salmonella on sliced cooked ham. A full factorial experimental design was employed with control variables of ASP (0-10%), AA (0-4%), O (0-0.6%) and C (0-0.8%). Acetic acid, O and C were more effective in reducing Salmonella population densities on sliced cooked ham as compared to ASP; the reductions ranged from 1.2 and 4.4 log cfu/cm2 for 1 and 4% AA, respectively, to virtually no reduction for 5 and 10% ASP. The interaction between ASP and AA, ASP and C, AA and C also had a significant influence on Salmonella reduction on sliced cooked ham. The highest reduction (6.9 log cfu/cm2) was achieved with the use of AA (4%) and C (0.8%) and the least effective was the use of a combination of ASP (10%) and O (0.6%) when the reduction was minimal, i.e., 1.7 log cfu/cm2. A second-order response surface model developed to predict Salmonella survival was found to be significant (p less than 0.0001) with regression coefficients of 0.858 and an insignificant lack of fit (p=0.4266). Results of this study will assist food processors and regulators in developing guidelines applicable to reducing Salmonella on ready-to-eat foods by combined use of ASP, AA, O and C.