Combined effect of organic acids and supercritical carbon dioxide treatments against nonpathogenic Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella typhimurium and E. coli O157:H7 in fresh pork.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of organic acids and supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO(2)) treatments as well as their combined effect for the reduction of nonpathogenic Escherichia coli and three pathogenic bacteria in fresh pork.


RESULTS
The different treatment conditions were as follows: (i) treatment with acetic (1%, 2% or 3%) or lactic acid (1%, 2% or 3%) only, (ii) treatment with SC-CO(2) at 12 MPa and 35 degrees C for 30 min only and (iii) treatment with 3% acetic or lactic acid followed by treatment with SC-CO(2). Within the same organic acid concentration, the lactic and acetic acid treatments had similar reductions. For the combined treatment of lactic acid and SC-CO(2), micro-organism levels were maximally reduced, ranging from 2.10 to 2.60 log CFU cm(-2) (E. coli, 2.58 log CFU cm(-2); Listeria monocytogenes, 2.60 log CFU cm(-2); Salmonella typhimurium, 2.33 log CFU cm(-2); E. coli O157:H7, 2.10 log CFU cm(-2)).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study indicate that the combined treatments of SC-CO(2) and organic acids were more effective at destroying foodborne pathogens than the treatments of SC-CO(2) or organic acids alone.


CONCLUSIONS
The combination treatment of SC-CO(2) and organic acids may be useful in the meat industry to help increase microbial safety.
Choi
Y M
YM
Division of Food Bioscience and Technology, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
Kim
O Y
OY
Kim
K H
KH
Kim
B C
BC
Rhee
M S
MS
D000143:Acids / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000494:pharmacology; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000187:drug effects*; D005519:Food Preservation / Q000379:methods*; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000187:drug effects*; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D050296:Microbial Viability / Q000187:drug effects; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000187:drug effects*; D013552:Swine
D000143:Acids; D002245:Carbon Dioxide