title: High levels of background flora inhibits growth of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ground beef.
abstract: The influence of natural background flora under aerobic and anaerobic incubation on the growth of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ground beef was investigated. The background flora from eight different commercial ground beef were added to ground beef spiked with E. coli O157:H7 and stored either aerobically or anaerobically at 12 degrees C. The results showed that the presence of a large number of background bacteria in the ground meat inhibited the growth of E. coli O157:H7 both aerobically and anaerobically. Inhibition was more pronounced under anaerobic conditions. The background floras consisted mainly of lactic acid bacteria of which approximately 80% were Lactobacillus sakei. These results show the importance of the natural background flora in meat for inhibition of growth of E. coli O157:H7.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Microbiology and Food Hygiene, The Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Oslo.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vold
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Holck
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wasteson
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nissen
mesh_terms: D000332:Aerobiosis; D000693:Anaerobiosis; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000254:growth & development*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005519:Food Preservation; D008461:Meat Products / Q000382:microbiology*