Journal of Food Safety - 2007 - ROERING - PASTEURIZATION OF VACUUM SEALED PACKAGES OF SUMMER SAUSAGE INOCULATED WITH

17454565, 1998, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-4565.1998.tb00201.x by ITAL - Instituto de Tecnologia de Alimentos, Wiley Online Library on [10/11/2022].
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PASTEURIZATION OF VACUUM-SEALED PACKAGES OF
SUMMER SAUSAGE INOCULATED WITH LZSTElpIA
MONOCYTOGENES
ANN M.ROERING', RACHEL K.WIERZBA', ANNE M.IHNOT' and
JOHN B.LUCHANSKY','*'
'Department of Food Microbiology & Toxicology

Food Research Institute
'Department of Food Science
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Received for Publication September 25, 1997

Accepted for Publication December 15, 1997
ABSTRACT
Packages containing chubs of summer sausage were inoculated with about 105
cfUmL of a three-strain mixture of Listeria monocytogenes and vacuum sealed.
Thefate of the pathogen was then monitored afrer pasteurization at I50F (66C),
I70F (77C), 190F (88C) and 210F (99C)for 0 to 240 s. Pathogen numbers were
reduced by about 3 loglocfu per gram within 30, 60, or 90 s at 21OF (99C), I90F
(88C), or 17OF (77C), respectivelj, whereas numbers were reduced by <2.0 log,,
cfu per gram after 240 s of heating at ISOF (66C). The calculated D values were
2.08 min at 15OF (66C), 0.84 min at I70F (77C), 0.37 min at 190F (88C), and 0.28
min at 210F (99C). These results establish thefeasibility of using pasteurization to
control L. monocytogenes in packaged summer sausage.
INTRODUCTION
Listeria monocytogenes is a well-documented food-borne pathogen and the

organism most frequently associated with USDA-regulated product recalls (Anon.
1996; Farber and Peterkin 1991; Johnson et al. 1990). The prevalence of L.
monocytogenes in meats ranges from 0 to 92% (Johnson et al. 1990), with the
overall prevalence of the pathogen for meats estimated at 16% (Jay 1996). For
ready-to-eat fermented meats, the prevalence ranges from about 22% (Nicolas
1985) to 33% percent (Farber et al. 1988). However, with the possible exception
of pate, levels of the pathogen in meats are typically i lo3cfu per gram (Buchanan
'Corresponding author: John B. Luchansky, Food Research Institute, 1925 Willow Drive, Madison,
WI 53706. Phone: (608) 263-7777, Fax: (608) 263-1 114, Email: jbluchan@ facstaff.wisc.edu.
Journal of Food Safety 18 (1998) 49-56. All Rights Reserved.

Topyright I998 by Food & Nutrition Press, Inc., Trumbull, Connecticut. 49
17454565, 1998, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-4565.1998.tb00201.x by ITAL - Instituto de Tecnologia de Alimentos, Wiley Online Library on [10/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
50 A.M. ROERING, R.K. WIERZBA, A.M. IHNOT and J.B. LUCHANSKY
et al. 1989; Farber and Peterkin 1991; Johnson et al. 1990). Sources of the
pathogen include raw meat and various food contact surfaces within the processing
facility and/or retail outlets (Genigeorgis et al. 1989; Wenger et al. 1990). In
addition to environmental sources, the carrier rate among meat processing
personnel ranges from 7.5% (Nicolas and Vidaud 1987) to 25.6% (Elischerova et
al. 1979). The prevalence and levels of the pathogen on ready-to-eat fermented
meats, particularly products such as summer sausage which are cooked after
fermentation, indicates that occasionally postfermentation heating may not be
sufficient to eliminate L. monocytogenes and/or that postprocessing contamination
occurs quite frequently. Given that the pathogen can also survive/grow in summer
sausage during refrigerated storage (Glass and Doyle 1989), we evaluated
postprocessing pasteurization to improve the safety of packaged summer sausage.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A 3-strain mixture of L. monocytogenes [strain 10 1 M (meat isolate, serotype

4b) (Glass and Doyle 1989); strain F 6854 (turkey frank isolate, serotype 1/2a)
(Schwartz et al. 1988); strain CLIP 23485 (pork isolate, serotype 4b) (Anon. 1993)]
was used to inoculate packages containing summer sausages. Cells of each isolate
were grown separately in 10 mL of brain heart infusion (BHI; Difco Laboratories,
Detroit, MI) broth for 18 h at 37C. After harvesting by centrifugation (4,000 rpm,
20 min, 4C), cells from each of the three strains were individually resuspended in
5 mL of 0.1% peptone water (Bacto Peptone; Difco) and the individual cell
suspensions were then combined and diluted in peptone water to a concentration
of about 10' cfu/mL.
A single brand and type of summer sausage chubs (approximately 225 grams
each) were either supplied by a commercial manufacturer or purchased at a local
supermarket. Each chub was aseptically removed from its original package, without
removing the casing, and re-packaged into polyethylene vacuum seal bags [Curlon@
Grade 863; 18 x 23 cm; 0, < 1 .O CC per 100 inch2 per 24 h at 73F (23C) and 9%
RH with MVTR 0.5 gram H,O per 100 inch' per 24 h at lOOF (38C) and 90% RH;
Curwood, Inc., Oshkosh, WI]. Three milliliters of the three-strain mixture were
added to each bag and the bags were massaged by hand to better distribute the
inoculum throughout before the bags were vacuum sealed using a Multivac AGW
vacuum-packaging unit (Sepp Haggemuller KG, Wolfertschsenden, Germany). For
pasteurization, the vacuum-packaged chubs inoculated with L. monocytogenes were
completely submerged for 0 to 240 s in a precision waterbath (model 5L; Fisher
Scientific, Pittsburgh, PA) maintained at 150F (66C), 170F (77C), 190F (88C), or
210F (99C). Two bags were submerged for each time and temperature. After
pasteurization, the bags were opened with the aid of sterile scissors and 0.1-mL
portions therefrom were diluted in 0.1% peptone water and spread-plated onto BHI
CONTROL OF L. MONOCYTOGENES IN SUMMER SAUSAGE 51
agar plates. Colonies were counted following incubation at 37C for 24 h. To

achieve a detection level of 10' cfu per gram, it was necessary to plate 330 pL of
the contents of the 10' dilution tube directly onto each of 3 BHI agar plates. A 10-
gram cross section from representativecontrol (i.e., noninoculated) chubs was also
macerated and diluted in peptone water to determine background levels of aerobic
bacteria on BHI agar plates and to screen for indigenous L. monocytogenes on
modified Oxford agar (Unipath Ltd., Basingstoke, Hampshire, England) plates.
Colonies were counted after incubation at 37C for 24 h. The pasteurization
experiments were conducted on three different days using three different
preparations of the three-strain cocktail (i.e., three trials for each experiment). For
each trial, the liquid from within each of 2 packages was tested at each sampling
interval and dilutions therefrom were plated in duplicate.
Statistical Analyses
The decimal reduction times (D values, in minutes) were calculated from
survivor curves from three trials for each temperature using linear regression to
determine the line of best fit. Values of <lo' cfu per gram observed on BHI plates
were scored as 9 for regression analyses.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Initial sampling of representativesummer sausage revealed that chubs contained

< 10' c h per gram of total aerobic bacteria or L. monocytogenes (data not shown).
Prefatory studies were also performed to compare levels of the pathogen in the
liquid within packages to levels of the pathogen associated with the casings or the
meat. After pasteurization of 18 chubs per trial at temperatures of 180F (82C) to
210F (99C) for 0 to 120 s pathogen numbers were typically < I log,, unit lower on
the casing compared with levels recovered in the liquid and the pathogen was not
detected within 10-gram samples of the summer sausage (data not shown). Since
there was little difference between counts on the casing and in the liquid, and since
sampling the casing was more tedious than sampling the liquid, the remainder of
the study monitored pathogen numbers in a portion of the liquid recovered from
vacuum-packaged chubs that were subsequently pasteurized.
Several studies reported that fermented meats testing positive for L.
monocytogenes at retail harbored the pathogen at levels ranging from <20 to lo3
cfu per gram (Farber and Peterkin 1991). Therefore, it is significant that post-
processing pasteurization of summer sausage at 170F (77C) for at least 150 s, or
at 190F (88C) for at least 90 s, or at 2 1OF (99C) for at least 60 s was sufficient to
yield a 3 log,, decrease in L. monocytogenes numbers (Table 1). Pasteurization at
150F (66C) for 240 s produced a 2 log,, reduction in pathogen numbers (Table
1). As expected, calculated D values decreased with increased pasteurization

temperatures (Table 2). The D values observed in the present study are in general
agreement with D values previously reported for L. monocytogenes in foods
(Farber and Peterkin 1991). For example, Farber (1989) reported a D,,,, of
1.28 min for L.monocytogenesin ground meat plus cure and Boyle et al. (1 990)
reported a D149.F in meat sluny of 0.75 min, whereas we observed a D,,,, of 2.08
min for summer sausages. Other examples for meats include a D,,,, of 0.47 to 0.73
in naturally-contaminated ground beef and 2.56 to 2.82 in ground roast beef
(Schoeni et al. 1991). As summarized by Farber (1989), the DIG,, in various milk
systems ranged from 0.015 to 0.083 min. Such differences can be explained, in
part, because the present study, unlike previous studies, measured the temperature
of the water bath rather than the product temperature. Also, in the present study,
cells of L. monocytogenes were inoculated into packages containing meat, whereas
in previous studies, cells of L. monocytogenes were distributed throughout the
meat. Further differences in D values could be attributed to differences in come-up
times and/or strain-to-strain variations and/or the ability of the different plating
media to recover injured cells andor differences in the proximate composition of
the food matrix. Regardless, our results indicate that pasteurization at temperatures
of 170F (77C) or greater for 60 to 120 s was sufficient to eliminate appreciable
numbers of L. monocytogenes. As determined by visual inspection, such processes
did not cause appreciable untoward effects, such as “greasing out” or textural
changes, on the finished product. Prefatory experiments also revealed that the
pasteurization times and temperatures evaluated did not appreciably alter the flavor
or color of the finished product (data not shown).
In recent years there has been considerable research conducted to identify
strategies for controllingpathogens, notably E. coli 0157:H7,in fermented meats.
For manufacturers not in compliance with current USDA/FSIS options for assuring
the safety of dryhemi-dry fermented sausage with respect to E. coli 0157:H7
(Reed 1995),the agency has indicated in a recent letter (Billy 1997) that in addition
to E. coli 0157:H7 it will begin more frequent sampling of products from said
facilities for L. monocytogenes and Salmonella species. The greater frequency of
inspection will increase the likelihood of finding L. monocytogenes on finished
products. Regarding intervention strategies, the literature indicates that
fermentation using a bacteriocin-producing starter culture eliminated about 2.0 to
3.5 log,, cfu per gram of L. monocytogenes in turkey and chicken summer sausage
and that thermal processing delivered an additional 4.0 to 5.0 log,, unit reduction
(Baccus-Taylor et al. 1993; Luchansky et al. 1992). Although fermentation and
thermal processing are probably adequate to eliminate levels of the pathogen
usually found on raw meat, such processes would not be adequate to eliminate the
pathogen on product contaminated postprocess. Assuming no further handling of
the product after packaging, the pasteurization times and temperatures reported
c,
0
z
4
P
TABLE 1. ?
SURVIVAL OF A THREE-STRAM MIXTURE OF L. MONOCYTOGENES (8.28i0.24 log ,o cfu per mL; n=3) IN VACUUM-SEALED $1
PACKAGES OF SUMMER SAUSAGE AFTER PASTEURIZATION r-
8
Temperature Time (seconds) s
"F 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240
t.j
150 NT 7.96i0.32 NT 7.55i0.36" 7.24i0.63" 7.15*0.37' 6.7Ib 6.54i0.14' s
h
170 NT 6.44i0.55 NT 5.53i0.61 4.61i0.44 4.19i0.58 4.38i0.91 3.55i0.65 2
I90 6.03i0.20 5.45i0.35 3.87i0.99' 3 . 2 1 . 51 3.20.95 <I' NT NT
2
3
210 5.06i-O.15 3.96i0.72 2.02zk1.45' <I <I NT NT NT
NT = not tested
"n=2
bn=l
cn
W
TABLE 2.
THERMAL DEATH TIMES (D-VALUES) FOR A THREE-STRAIN MIXTURE OF L.
MONOCYTOCENES IN VACUUM-SEALED PACKAGES OF SUMMER SAUSAGES
Temperature (“F) D-value (minutes)
I50 2.08*0.51
170 0.84*0.075
190 0.37i0.029
210 0.28*0.074
herein should be sufficient to eliminate relatively low levels of the pathogen

resulting from postprocess contamination, as well as maintain product safety until
the package is opened for consumption. Postprocessing pasteurization may also
prove usefid for reducing levels of L. monocytogenes, or E. coli 0157:H7 and
Salmonella species, on and/or within other types of fermented sausage.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We extend our appreciation to Nan Faith (Food Research Institute) and Tim
Lorang (Doskocil) for their invaluable suggestions and assistance and to Doskocil
Foods Company for providing summer sausage. This work was also supported,
in part, by contributions to the Food Research Institute from the Food Industry
and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences of the University of Wisconsin-
Madison.
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17454565, 1998, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-4565.1998.tb00201.x by ITAL - Instituto de Tecnologia de Alimentos, Wiley Online Library on [10/11/2022].

'Department of Food Microbiology & Toxicology

Received for Publication September 25, 1997

Listeria monocytogenes is a well-documented food-borne pathogen and the

Journal of Food Safety 18 (1998) 49-56. All Rights Reserved.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A 3-strain mixture of L. monocytogenes [strain 10 1 M (meat isolate, serotype

agar plates. Colonies were counted following incubation at 37C for 24 h. To

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Initial sampling of representativesummer sausage revealed that chubs contained

1). As expected, calculated D values decreased with increased pasteurization

herein should be sufficient to eliminate relatively low levels of the pathogen

ANON. 1993. Epidemie De Listeoriose A Lysovar 267 1 - 108-3 12 En France.

SCHOENI, J.L., BRUNNER, K. and DOYLE, M.P. 1991. Rates of thermal

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