title: Effect of thermal processing during yogurt production upon the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin B.
abstract: This research was conducted to examine the inherent properties of yogurt contaminated with staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). Two types of yogurts were produced for this study. Type I yogurts were produced by adding SEB at the start of yogurt production, and type II yogurts were produced by adding SEB after the milk base had been boiled. Biochemical characteristics inherent to yogurt, including pH, lactic acid and acetaldehyde concentrations, were analyzed weekly for each batch beginning at a time just after production and throughout a storage period of at least 4 weeks. The presence of toxin during yogurt production did not result in any significant biochemical or physical changes in yogurt. However, we were unable to detect SEB toxin in type I yogurt using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In contrast, SEB was easily detectable by our ELISA in type II yogurt samples. Higher levels of SEB were recovered from type II yogurt that had been stored for 1 week than from type II yogurt that had been stored for any other length of time. These results indicate that the biochemical characteristics of yogurt did not change significantly (relative to control yogurt) in the presence of either thermally processed SEB or native SEB. However, the ability to detect SEB by ELISA was dependent on whether the toxin had been processed.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 8301 Muirkirk Road, Laurel, Maryland 20708, USA. maryann.principato@fda.hhs.gov
authors.forename: Maryann
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Principato
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Njoroge
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: O'Donnell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005285:Fermentation; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D008892:Milk / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors; D015014:Yogurt / Q000032:analysis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D004768:Enterotoxins; C031818:enterotoxin B, staphylococcal