title: Survival of Inoculated Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Japanese Sweet Dumplings during Storage.
abstract: An outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 occurred due to the consumption of sweet dumplings in Japan. We examined the survival of E. coli O157:H7 inoculated into several types of sweet dumplings to evaluate the progress of the residual contaminating pathogens after the production or packing processes. For all 4 types of tested typical sweet dumplings, no significant reduction in the viable cell counts of inoculated E. coli O157:H7 (3 log CFU/g) was observed during storage at -20 ℃ and 5 ℃ for 5 weeks. Approximately 1 log CFU/g of reduction was observed after storage for 5 weeks at 10 ℃ and 15 ℃, which corresponded to the growth of the naturally contaminating fungi. Similar results were obtained when we used several types of commercially distributed sweet dumplings. It is of vital importance to prevent the cross contamination of sweet dumplings after the heating process in order to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.
authors.affiliation: National Food Research Institute, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization.
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inatsu
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohata
authors.forename: Nobutaka
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Yukie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hosotani
authors.forename: Chiraporn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ananchaipattana
authors.forename: Md Latiful
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Bari
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawasaki
mesh_terms: D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D019453:Escherichia coli O157 / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D061353:Food Storage; D007564:Japan; D050296:Microbial Viability; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors