Abstract
Salmonella spp. surface transfer patterns/models between ready-to-eat (RTE) deli meat and a typical meat slicer are presented. A five-strain cocktail of Salmonella spp. was inoculated directly onto the rim of a round slicer blade at an initial level of ca. 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 log CFU/blade (ca. 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 log CFU/cm2 of the blade edge area). Thereafter, a RTE deli meat (ham) was sliced to a thickness of 1.5 - 2.0 mm. In another cross-contamination scenario, a clean blade was initially used to slice ham, which was pre-surface-inoculated with the Salmonella cocktail (ca. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 log CFU/cm2 with a total area of 100 cm2), followed by slicing of an un-inoculated ham. The log CFU of Salmonella per ham slice was determined and empirical models were developed. The models, follow the decreasing Power law, predict the surface cross-contamination of Salmonella spp. (at any initial level) for sliced deli meat (ham) and will provide a useful tool in developing RTE meat risk assessments. Surface transfer patterns of three foodborne pathogens, i.e. Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella predicted by models are also presented.
Highlights
Salmonella is the commonly reported etiologic agent that causes bacterial foodborne disease outbreaks in the United States
There was no model suitable to describe this kind of experimental surface transfer trend, so only few surface transfer reports for low level foodborne pathogen cross-contamination are available in the literature
They confirmed positive and negative results by enrichments, and a 3-log CFU per blade inoculation showed that L. monocytogenes was positive in 12/200 (6%), 7/200 (3.5%), and 1/200 (0.5%) for turkey, salami and bologna samples, respectively
Summary
Serotypes of Salmonella that have been implicated in causing salmonellosis were S. Among the reported outbreaks of salmonellosis with known food vehicles, most were caused by the consumption of contaminated animal products in which poultry and poultry products are the frequent sources [2]. In the most recent report [3], Salmonella was found the leading cause of estimated hospitalizations and deaths, responsible for about 28 percent of deaths and 35 percent of hospitalizations due to known pathogens transmitted by food. Surveillance reports in European countries have indicated that 9% and 15% of human salmonellosis cases in Demark and the Netherlands, respectively, were associated with the consumption of contaminated pork [15]. Beef products have be identified as food vehicles in outbreaks of salmonellosis [1]. Since there is a high possibility that Salmonella spp. can become established on environmental surfaces of beef and pork processing facilities, cross-contamination of Salmonella onto beef
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