ARS | Publication request: Growth of Escherichia albertii strains in ground turkey at three temperatures

Submitted to: Annual Meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: March 20, 2008
Publication Date: June 28, 2008
Citation: Taormina, P.J., Taylor, T.M., Sharma, M. 2008. Growth of Escherichia albertii strains in ground turkey at three temperatures. Annual Meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists. p. 33.

Technical Abstract: Escherichia albertii is the newest species designated in the genus Escherichia and has been associated with diarrheal disease in developing nations. The impacts of food preservation treatments against E. albertii have been studied, but data on the behavior of the organism in food are lacking. The objective of this work was to measure growth characteristics of three strains of E. albertii (9194, 10457, and 19982) in ground turkey stored at refrigeration and abusive temperatures. Ground turkey was gamma irradiated to a dose of 5 kGy, inoculated separately with each strain to a population of 4-log CFU/g, and stored at 5, 15, and 30 deg C. At predetermined intervals, 25g samples of inoculated turkey were withdrawn, stomached with 225ml of diluent, and enumerated onto MacConkey agar supplemented with 1 deg L-rhamnose (RMAC). Plates were incubated at 37 deg C for 24h prior to counting presumptive E. albertii colonies. Uninoculated turkey was plated on tryptic soy agar (TSA) as well as RMAC and plates were incubated similarly. After 21 days at 5 deg C, strains 9194, 10457, and 19982 increased by 1.40, 1.97, and 1.02 log CFU/g, respectively, although populations remained static until 14 days. During storage at 15 deg C, strains 9194, 10457, and 19982 increased by 4.51, 4.89, and 4.71 log CFU/g, respectively. Strain 10457 increased to 8.65 log CFU/g after seven days at 15 deg C, while the other strains were ca. 1-log lower. At 30 deg C, all three strains increased by ca. 4-log CFU/g by day 2. Although aerobic microorganisms were recovered from uninoculated turkey on TSA, no colonies characteristic of E. albertii were recovered on RMAC. These findings demonstrate that E. albertii is capable of growth in poultry at refrigeration temperatures, and, as expected, in poultry stored at abusive temperatures. This is the first reported work on the behavior of E. albertii in food.