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Quantitative Evaluation of Thermal Inactivation Kinetics of Free-Floating Versus Surface-Attached Listeria innocua Cells

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Abstract

Surface pasteurization is one of the decontamination treatments that can contribute to better preservation of meat products retaining most of their quality characteristics relatively intact if compared with the raw products. The current research compares the kinetics of free-floating and surface attached Listeria innocua cells by using integrated microbial and heat transfer modelling approaches. Surface pasteurization treatments are applied on a (abiotic) Teflon® model system in a novel steam surface decontamination rig. The experimental set-up prevented following four technological aspects to occur, (1) cold purge migration to the surface during the heating process, (2) inactivation kinetics of a cocktail of microbes, (3) protective effect of food components, and (4) physical distribution of bacteria throughout the depth of the product skin. Microbial load predictions are performed based on the inactivation parameters obtained during free-floating cell experiments. These predictions, when compared with the microbial data of the surface treatments, prove that the surface attached cells were much more heat resistant, despite the experimental set-up preventing the aforementioned (technological) events to occur. Indeed, surface attached cells can have different physiological/phenotypical/genetical characteristics, such as cell aggregations, colony formations, presence of flagella. In a final step, three techniques are implemented to evaluate mathematically the kinetics of the surface attached cells. Overall, this research’s significance is lying in the quantitative assessment of microbial heat resistance. The technological reasons underlying the increased microbial heat resistance on biotic and abiotic surfaces should be reevaluated, taking into account possible physiological/phenotypical/genetical characteristics.

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Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Dr. Isabelle Lebert for scientific discussions and Laurent Saint-André for his technical assistance. This research was supported by the French government and INRA for the post Doctoral fellowship of Claudine Péroval, by the projects EF/05/006 (Center-of-Excellence Optimization in Engineering) and OT/03/30 of the Research Council of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (IAP/PAI and PODO II).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Chemical and Biochemical Process Technology and Control, Department of Chemical Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, W. de Croylaan 46, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

    Vasilis P. Valdramidis, Anke J. Verhulst & Jan F. M. Van Impe

  2. Transfer & Quality Modelling Team, Laboratory of Animal Products Quality, Qualité des Produits Animaux—Couplage Transferts Transformation (QuaPA-C2T), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), 63122, St. Genès Champanelle, France

    Claudine Péroval, Stéphane Portanguen & Alain Kondjoyan

  3. Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS), Department of Biosystems (BIOSYST), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, W. de Croylaan 42, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

    Annemie H. Geeraerd

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  1. Vasilis P. Valdramidis
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  2. Claudine Péroval
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  3. Stéphane Portanguen
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  4. Anke J. Verhulst
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  5. Jan F. M. Van Impe
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  6. Annemie H. Geeraerd
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Correspondence to Annemie H. Geeraerd.

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Valdramidis, V.P., Péroval, C., Portanguen, S. et al. Quantitative Evaluation of Thermal Inactivation Kinetics of Free-Floating Versus Surface-Attached Listeria innocua Cells. Food Bioprocess Technol 1, 285–296 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-007-0010-5

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