Abstract
The structure of real food is a key factor to be considered in order to control microbial growth. A pastry filling has been employed as model food to study the growth of Staphylococcus under different conditions. Additionally, the structure of the food system has been characterised by means of rheological measurements. Frequency sweeps showed that, in all cases, the elastic component determines the rheological behaviour of model pastry filling (G' > G''). Values obtained for the coordination number (z) and the proportional coefficient (A) indicated that the model food exhibits more aggregate structures and stronger links at lower temperatures. According to the maximum specific growth rates, the Staphylococcus growth in the model pastry filling was clearly conditioned by oxygen diffusion, which is limited by the food matrix, and also by the incubation temperature. In addition, the analysis of Staphylococcus growth at different temperatures suggested the influence of the pastry filling structure on microorganism behaviour.
Highlights
With increasing globalization, food safety has become a major concern of governments, food industry and consumers
The model pastry filling prepared with eggs, margarine and sugar, as explained in Material and Methods section, resulted in an accurate medium for S. warneri growth at all the assayed temperatures (Figure 1)
The bacterial growth was slightly lower at 20 °C and at 6 °C microorganism concentration only increased in one order of magnitude
Summary
Food safety has become a major concern of governments, food industry and consumers. Food safety remains as industry’s number one priority (Chinyama, 2014). Staphylococcus aureus is an extremely versatile opportunistic pathogen that has the ability to grow and produce heat-stable toxins in food products. Eggs and dairy products, as well as cream-filled bakery products are examples of food involved in staphylococcal poisoning (Alhashimi et al, 2017; Silva et al, 2017). The presence of these bacteria in food occurs frequently due to an inappropriate manipulation of food (Alhashimi et al, 2017), including improper use of temperature during processing and conservation, cross contamination, poor personal hygiene and inadequate equipment (Rebouças et al, 2017)
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