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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 #371247
Research Project: Data Acquisition, Development of Predictive Models for Food Safety and their Associated Use in International Pathogen Modeling and Microbial Databases

Location: Microbial and Chemical Food Safety

Title: The effect of lauric arginate on the thermal inactivation of starved Listeria monocytogenes in sous-vide cooked ground beef

Author
item Juneja, Vijay
item Osoria, Marangeli
item TIWARI, UMA - Department Of Agriculture, Food, And The Marine
item XU, XINRAN - University Of Georgia
item GOLDEN, CHASE - University Of Georgia
item Mukhopadhyay, Sudarsan
item MISHRA, ABHINAV - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: Food Research International
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/26/2020
Publication Date: 4/28/2020
Citation: Juneja, V.K., Osoria, M., Tiwari, U., Xu, X., Golden, C.E., Mukhopadhyay, S., Mishra, A. 2020. The effect of lauric arginate on the thermal inactivation of starved Listeria monocytogenes in sous-vide cooked ground beef. Food Research International. 134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109280.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109280

Interpretive Summary: Listeria monocytogenes continues to be a pathogen of major concern for the food processors since documentation of its association with several outbreaks of foodborne illness. In sous vide processed foods, mild heat treatment required to retain the sensory attributes may not ensure proper destruction of this deadly bacterium. This emphasizes the need to determine time and temperature given to these foods to provide an adequate degree of protection against survival of L. monocytogenes. The results suggest that supplementing ground beef with 1000 – 3000 ppm lauric arginate prior to sous vide processing can render the pathogen less resistant to the lethal effect of heat. These findings will be of immediate use to the food industry and regulatory agencies to ensure the safety of the sous vide processed foods.

Technical Abstract: The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of lauric arginate (LAE, 1000 ppm – 3000 ppm) as an assisting tool to reduce starved Listeria monocytogenes population in ground beef following sous-vide processing at different temperatures (55-62.5C). Ground beef mixed with LAE was vacuum sealed and a laboratory water bath was used for sous-vide cooking. Loglinear and Weibull models were fit to the survival microbial population and the D and Z-values were determined at 55-62.5C. Calculated D-values ranged from 33.62 to 3.22 min at temperature 55-62.5C. LAE at higher concentration is an effective antimicrobial to increase the inactivation of the pathogen in sous-vide cooking. With the addition of LAE, D-values at 55 and 62.5C determined by the Loglinear model decreased from 31.86 to 2.28 min (LAE 1000 ppm) and 16.71 to 0.56 min (LAE 3000 ppm), respectively; whereas the D-values at 55 to 62.5C determined by the Weibull model were 44.26 and 2.09 min (LAE 1000 ppm) and 22.71 and 1.60 min (LAE 3000 ppm), respectively. This study shows that sous-vide processing of ground beef supplemented with higher concentration of LAE effectively inactivates L. monocytogenes and thus, helps increase the shelf-life and product quality.