Inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in fruit juices by combined treatments of citrus fruit essential oils and heat.

This work approaches the possibility of combining mild heat treatments with citrus fruit essential oils (EOs) to improve the effectiveness of heat treatments and thus to reduce treatment intensity. Concentrations between 10 and 200 µL/L of lemon, mandarin, or orange EO were tested at 54 °C for 10 min in laboratory media, determining that 200 µL/L of each EO was necessary to achieve a 5 log(10) reduction of the initial Escherichia coli O157:H7 concentration. A relationship could be established between sublethally injured cells after the heat treatment and inactivated cells after the combined process. In apple juice, the synergism in the inactivation of E. coli O157:H7 when adding 200 µL/L of lemon EO might suppose a reduction in the treatment temperature (of 4.5 °C) or in the treatment time (by 5.7 times) within the range of temperature assayed (54-60 °C). Addition of 75 µL/L of lemon EO was determined to achieve the same synergistic effect of the combined treatment when the initial inoculum was reduced from 3×10(7) to 3×10(4) CFU/mL. Since the addition of lemon EO did not decrease the hedonic acceptability of apple juice, the proposed combined treatment could be further studied and optimized for the production of new minimally processed juices.

Relationship between sublethal injury and microbial inactivation by the combination of high hydrostatic pressure and citral or tert-butyl hydroquinone.

The aim was to investigate (i) the occurrence of sublethal injury in Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae after high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatment as a function of the treatment medium pH and composition and (ii) the relationship between the occurrence of sublethal injury and the inactivating effect of a combination of HHP and two antimicrobial compounds, tert-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) and citral. The three microorganisms showed a high proportion of sublethally injured cells (up to 99.99% of the surviving population) after HHP. In E. coli and L. monocytogenes, the extent of inactivation and sublethal injury depended on the pH and the composition of the treatment medium, whereas in S. cerevisiae, inactivation and sublethal injury were independent of medium pH or composition under the conditions tested. TBHQ alone was not lethal to E. coli or L. monocytogenes but acted synergistically with HHP and 24-h refrigeration, resulting in a viability decrease of >5 log(10) cycles of both organisms. The antimicrobial effect of citral depended on the microorganism and the treatment medium pH. Acting alone for 24 h under refrigeration, 1,000 ppm of citral caused a reduction of 5 log(10) cycles of E. coli at pH 7.0 and almost 3 log(10) cycles of L. monocytogenes at pH 4.0. The combination of citral and HHP also showed a synergistic effect. Our results have confirmed that the detection of sublethal injury after HHP may contribute to the identification of those treatment conditions under which HHP may act synergistically with other preserving processes.