Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania » Eastern Regional Research Center » Microbial and Chemical Food Safety » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #418112
Research Project: Development and Validation of Predictive Models and Pathogen Modeling Programs; and Data Acquisition for International Microbial Databases

Location: Microbial and Chemical Food Safety

Title: Increased thermal sensitivity of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in sous vide cooked ground beef supplemented with celery (Apium graveolens L.) seed oil or root powder

Author
item COSANSU, SERAP - Sakarya University
item GÜNDOGDU, EBRAR - Sakarya University
item ALTUNTAS, EVRIM - Ankara University
item Juneja, Vijay

Submitted to: LWT - Food Science and Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/26/2024
Publication Date: 11/27/2024
Citation: Cosansu, S., Gündogdu, E., Altuntas, E.G., Juneja, V.K. 2024. Increased thermal sensitivity of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in sous vide cooked ground beef supplemented with celery (Apium graveolens L.) seed oil or root powder. LWT - Food Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2024.117121.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2024.117121

Interpretive Summary: Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a pathogen of significant concern for the food industry since documentation of its association with food poisoning outbreaks. Inadequately cooked beef is commonly implicated as transmission vehicles in these outbreaks. We determined that a heat treatment at 55C for 69.8 min and at 62.5C for 5.9 min would kill more than one million bacteria in beef. The heating time can be reduced if beef is supplemented with 2 – 3% celery root powder or celery seed oil. We developed a mathematical model for predicting the destruction of this pathogen in beef. The model can be used to predict the time required at any temperature to kill a certain number of bacteria. This information will assist food industry and regulatory agencies in the development of guidelines to ensure safety of the food supply.

Technical Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of celery root powder (CP; 3%) and celery seed oil (CSO; 2%) in reducing the thermal resistance of E. coli O157:H7 in sous vide cooked ground beef. The D-values of E. coli O157:H7 at 55-62.5C in samples without CP or CSO ranged from 11.64 to 0.99 minutes. However, in the samples with 3% CP or 2% CSO added, the D-values ranged from 10.59 to 0.35 minutes and 11.11 to 0.41 minutes, respectively. The presence of CP or CSO made E. coli O157:H7 cells more sensitive to temperature increase, resulting in a 65% and 59% decrease in D values at 62.5C in CP and CSO-added samples, respectively. The control samples had a z-value of 7.06C, whereas CP and CSO-added samples had z-values of 5.18C and 5.57C, respectively. These findings suggest that adding 3% CP or 2% CSO to ground beef may reduce the heating time or lower the temperature required to inactivate E. coli O157:H7 completely.