Growth evaluation of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes in fresh fruit and vegetable juices via predictive modeling

Abstract

Fresh juices are often exposed to microbial contamination due to their minimal processing, which can lead to foodborne disease. Therefore, in this study, in order to understand the behavior of foodborne pathogens (Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes) contained in fresh juice, the growth of the foodborne pathogens was predicted using the modified Gompertz model in six vegetable juices (beet, carrot, kale, celery, cabbage, and red cabbage) and two fruit juices (lemon and grapefruit) stored at 10 °C. Except for those of S. typhimurium in kale juice (maximum growth rate [GR], 0.05; lag time [LT], 118.30), the GR and LT of the foodborne pathogens were predicted to range from 0.04 to 0.08 and 6.37 to 35.48, respectively, in the vegetable juices. The performance of modified Gompertz modeling was confirmed to be in the range of 0.91–1.14 in terms of the bias factor (Bf) and 1.05 to 1.62 in terms of the accuracy factor (Af). The predictive modeling results from this study showed that vegetable juice supported the growth of foodborne pathogens.