Efficacy of heat treatment in the reduction of salmonellae and Escherichia coli O157:H– on alfalfa, mung bean and radish seeds used for sprout production

Abstract

We studied the effect of hot-water treatment at various time/temperature regimes to design a decontamination process which is consistent with the recommendation of the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) to reduce pathogens on seeds by 5log cfu/g. Alfalfa, mung bean and radish seeds were inoculated by immersion with more than 107 cfu/g of enterobacteria (Salmonella Senftenberg W775, S. Bovismorbificans and Escherichia coli O157:H–), dried and stored at 2 °C. The numbers of salmonellae and E. coli O157:H– on these seeds remained unchanged during storage for 8 weeks. To achieve sprouting rates of more than 95%, time-temperature regimes were defined. The thermal treatment of contaminated mung bean (2–20 min for 55–80 °C), radish and alfalfa seeds 0.5–8 min (53–64 °C) reduced all pathogens by more than 5log cfu/g. For S. Senftenberg W775 on radish seeds, D values of 3.2, 1.9 and 0.6 min were determined for exposure at 53, 55 and 58 °C and a z value of 6.2 °C was calculated. For alfalfa seeds, the respective D values were 3.0, 1.6, and 0.4 min and the z value was the same as that determined for radish seeds.