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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Food Safety and Intervention Technologies Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #356467
Research Project: Development and Validation of Innovative Food Processing Interventions

Location: Food Safety and Intervention Technologies Research

Title: Thermal inactivation kinetics of three heat-resistant Salmonella in whole liquid egg

Author
item Gurtler, Joshua
item Juneja, Vijay
item Jones, Deana
item PRUOHIT, ANUJ - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: Journal of Food Protection
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2019
Publication Date: 8/13/2019
Citation: Gurtler, J., Juneja, V.K., Jones, D.R., Pruohit, A. 2019. Thermal inactivation kinetics of three heat-resistant Salmonella in whole liquid egg. Journal of Food Protection. 82(9):1465-1471.

Interpretive Summary: Liquid egg pasteurization is accomplished in order to destroy the bacterium Salmonella, which may be deposited in the shell egg during formation. Nevertheless, greater heat-resistant strains of Salmonella need to be tested in order to assure that the thermal pasteurization standards are adequate to destroy the pathogen. We tested three heat-resistant strains of Salmonella in liquid whole egg and determined that contaminated whole liquid egg must be heated at 56 degrees Celsius for 41.9 min or for as low as 0.43 min at 64 degrees Celsius to achieve a 99.99 percent reduction of Salmonella. The results of this study will be beneficial to whole liquid egg distributors and regulatory agencies in designing HACCP plans/pasteurization processes to effectively eliminate Salmonella in whole liquid eggs and thereby, ensuring microbiological safety of the product.

Technical Abstract: The heat resistance (56 to 64 degrees Celcius) of three heat-resistant strains of Salmonella in whole liquid egg was determined. Inoculated samples in glass capillary tubes were completely immersed in a circulating water bath and held at 56, 58, 60, 62, and 64 degrees Celsius for predetermined lengths of time. The recovery medium was Tryptic Soy Agar with 0.1 percent sodium pyruvate and 50 ppm nalidixic acid. Survival data were fitted using log-linear, log-linear with shoulder and Weibull models using GInaFiT version 1.7. Based on the comparison of the goodness-of-fit of the three models using R2 and mean square error, the log-linear with shoulder and Weibull models consistently produced a better fit to Salmonella survival curves obtained at different temperatures. Contaminated whole liquid egg must be heated at 56 degrees Celsius for 41.9 min or for as low as 0.43 min at 64 degrees Celsius to achieve 4-log reduction of Salmonella. The results of this study will be beneficial to whole liquid egg distributors and regulatory agencies in designing HACCP plans/pasteurization processes to effectively eliminate Salmonella in whole liquid eggs and thereby, ensuring microbiological safety of the product.