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Predicting the behavioural pattern of Escherichia coli in minimally processed vegetables.

IR@CFTRI: CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore


Field	Value

Relation	http://ir.cftri.com/7647/ FC-72-01

Title	Predicting the behavioural pattern of Escherichia coli in minimally processed vegetables.

Creator	Bharathi, S. Ramesh, M. N. Varadaraj, M. C.

Subject	23 Vegetables 02 Bacteriology

Description	Effects of storage time and temp. were determined on populations of Escherichia coli inoculated into minimally processed (MP) vegetables. Minimal processing of vegetables included the following processes: trimming; washing in water; slicing; dipping in antimicrobial solution; drying; and packaging. MP cucumber, carrot and tomato samples were inoculated with 4.3, 5.3 or 6.3 log10 cfu E. coli D 21 per g vegetable and stored at 2, 9 or 16C for 2, 6 or 10 days. Experimental data were subjected to multivariate analysis and predictions of microbial behaviour were achieved by partial least squares regression. Performance of predictive models for E. coli behaviour in MP vegetables was evaluated using root mean square errors, coeff. of determination, bias and accuracy factors. Viable populations of E. coli increased more rapidly at 16 than at 9C and did not increase at all at 2C. Good agreement was obtained between experimental values and model predictions, and statistical indices demonstrated that model fits ranged between satisfactory and extremely good. Results suggest that microbial safety of MP vegetables is largely dependent on the initial concn. of microbial contaminant, and is also affected, but to a lesser extent, by storage time and temp.

Date	2001

Type	Article PeerReviewed

Format	application/pdf

Language	en

Rights	—

Identifier	http://ir.cftri.com/7647/1/Food_Control_12_%282001%29_275-284.pdf Bharathi, S. and Ramesh, M. N. and Varadaraj, M. C. (2001) Predicting the behavioural pattern of Escherichia coli in minimally processed vegetables. Food Control, 12 (5). 275-284, 38 ref..