Effect of diluents on the enumeration of Vibrio vulnificus

Influence of growth conditions on pressure resistance of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in oysters and the optimization of postpressure treatment recovery conditions

Vibrio parahaemolyticus ATCC 43996 was grown at 15°C for 53 h, 20°C for 24 h, 25°C for 12 h, 30°C for 9 h, 35°C for 9 h, or 40°C for 6 h to early stationary phase. Oyster meats were blended, autoclaved at 121°C for 15 min, inoculated with V. parahaemolyticus, and pressure treated at 250 MPa for 2 and 3 min and at 300 MPa for 1 and 2 min at 21°C. Overall, growth temperatures of 20 and 40°C yielded the greatest pressure resistance in V. parahaemolyticus. The effects of salt concentration and H(2)O(2)-degrading compounds on the recovery of V. parahaemolyticus also were investigated. Sterile oyster meats were inoculated with V. parahaemolyticus and treated at 250 MPa for 1, 2, or 3 min at 21°C. These meats were then blended with 0.1% peptone water supplemented with 0.5 to 1.5% NaCl and plated on tryptic soy agar (TSA) supplemented with 0 to 3.5% NaCl. For recovery of pressure-injured cells, peptone water with 1% NaCl and TSA with 0.5% NaCl were the best diluent and plating medium, respectively. Addition of sodium pyruvate (0.05 to 0.2%) or catalase (8 to 32 U/ml) did not increase the recovery of V. parahaemolyticus after pressure treatment. The effect of incubation temperature and gas atmosphere on the recovery of V. parahaemolyticus after pressure treatment also was determined. Aerobic incubation at 30°C resulted in the highest recovery of V. parahaemolyticus in sterile oyster meats. The 30°C incubation temperature was also the optimum temperature for recovery of V. parahaemolyticus in pressure-treated live oysters. The results of this study indicate that the growth conditions for V. parahaemolyticus before and after high hydrostatic pressure treatment should be taken into consideration when assessing the efficacy of pressure inactivation.

Use of linear, Weibull, and log-logistic functions to model pressure inactivation of seven foodborne pathogens in milk

Survival curves of six foodborne pathogens suspended in ultra high-temperature (UHT) whole milk and exposed to high hydrostatic pressure at 21.5 degrees C were obtained. Vibrio parahaemolyticus was treated at 300 MPa and other pathogens, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus were treated at 600 MPa. All the survival curves showed a rapid initial drop in bacterial counts followed by tailing caused by a diminishing inactivation rate. A linear model and two nonlinear models were fitted to these data and the performances of these models were compared using mean square error (MSE) values. The log-logistic and Weibull models consistently produced better fits to the inactivation data than the linear model. The mean MSE value of the linear model was 6.1, while the mean MSE values were 0.7 for the Weibull model and 0.3 for the log-logistic model. There was no correlation between pressure resistance and the taxonomic group the bacteria belong to. The order, most to least pressure-sensitive, of the single strains tested was: V. parahaemolyticus (gram negative)<L. monocytogenes (gram positive)<Salmonella Typhimurium (gram negative) approximately = Salmonella Enteritidis (gram negative)<E. coli O157:H7 approximately = Staphylocollus aureus (gram positive)<Shigella flexneri (gram negative). The most pressure-resistant gram-negative bacterium, Shigella flexneri, and most pressure resistant gram-positive bacterium, Staphylocollus aureus, were pressurized at 50 degrees C. Staphylocollus aureus was treated at 500 MPa and Shigella flexneri at 600 MPa. Elevated temperature considerably enhanced pressure inactivation of these two pathogens, but did not affect the overall shape of the survival curves. Pressure level (250 MPa) and substrate (1% peptone water plus 3% NaCl) in which V. parahaemolyticus was suspended affected the shape of survival curves of V. parahaemolyticus.

Sensitivities of foodborne pathogens to pressure changes

Eight foodborne pathogens were suspended in ultrahigh-temperature whole milk and treated at pressure levels of 0.1 to 690 MPa at 21.5 degrees C for 10 min. There was no clear trend in pressure resistance between gram-negative and gram-positive organisms. The order of the single strains tested, from most to least pressure sensitive, was Vibrio parahaemolyticus < Yersinia enterocolitica < Listeria monocytogenes < Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium < S. enterica serovar Enteritidis < Escherichia coli O157:H7 approximately equal to Staphylococcus aureus < Shigella flexneri. For each organism there existed a pressure range in which log(number of survivors) had a near linear relationship when plotted versus treatment pressure level. In this study, a decimal reduction pressure (Dp) value was defined and used to measure the sensitivity of these pathogens to pressure changes. L. monocytogenes and V. parahaemolyticus were most sensitive to pressure changes, and S. flexneri was most resistant. The D(P) values were 16.3 MPa for L. monocytogenes, 21.7 MPa for V. parahaemolyticus, and 127.0 MPa for S. flexneri. The most pressure-resistant gram-negative bacterium, S. flexneri, and most pressure-resistant gram-positive bacterium, S. aureus, were treated at 50 degrees C and pressures of 0.1 to 650 MPa for 10 min. High temperature considerably enhanced pressure inactivation of these two organisms and affected their sensitivities to pressure changes. The effect of treatment time on the D(P) values of L. monocytogenes and V. parahaemolyticus was also determined, and it was found that it did not significantly affect their D(P) values.