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Use of Neutralizers to Improve Salmonella spp. Detection in Inhibitory Food Matrices

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Abstract

The use of right sample preparation protocols is critical when analyzing challenging matrices containing inhibitory compounds inhibiting Salmonella growth during pre-enrichment step. The use of right sample preparation protocols will not only avoid a false negative result, but it can also have a huge positive impact on laboratory operations, as it is used for every type of method (cultural, ELISA, or PCR), every day in every laboratory. Sample preparation instructions to overcome the inhibitory effects are limited and for most cases an increase in the dilution factor (i.e., an increase of the volume of pre-enrichment broth). In this study, two neutralizers were identified as suitable alternatives for Salmonella detection in spices, natural flavors, and other food items (coffee, tea). Pre-enrichment with buffered peptone water and activated charcoal is considered the preferred solution, since it is cheaper to use and applicable to a broad range of food items, including coffee, vanilla, allspice, onion, tea, and peppermint with limit of detection between 0.63 and 2.45 cfu/25g whereas other food items like cinnamon and mustard were inactivated by buffered peptone water with cocktail of neutralizers (limit of detection between 0.35 and 1.05 cfu/25g). The use of neutralizers can reduce the analytical cost for Salmonella analysis as well as reducing the amount of reagents used (ranging from 1 L up to 4.5 L per 25-g sample) which will have a positive impact on laboratory operation workload as well as ergonomics and the environment.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Veronika Knapkova, Daniela Correia, Olivier Guillaume-Gentil, and Menaka Subrahmanyam from Nestlé PTC Orbe (Switzerland) for the organization of the preliminary trails with coffee, samples provided, and technical support; Carol Sivey from Micro Technical Services from Nestlé NQAC Dublin (USA) for the preliminary trials with spices and neutralizers; James Clulow from Special T-Product Integration (Orbe) for providing tea samples; Rolf Ossmer and Barbara Gerten from MERCK for the technical support, identification of neutralizers, and the culture media and reagents provided; and Miguel Espigares García and Elena Espigares Rodriguez from Granada University (Spain) for the combination of chemical substances suggested for the neutralizers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Universitario de Ingeniería de Alimentos-FoodUPV, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    David Tomás Fornés

  2. AINIA, C/ Benjamin Franklin 5-11, 46980, Paterna, Spain

    Amparo De Benito & Begoña Ruiz

  3. Nestlé Institute Food Safety and Analytical Sciences, Société des Produits Nestlé S.A. CH, Vers-chez-les-Blanc, CH-1000, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Adrianne Klijn

Authors
  1. David Tomás Fornés
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  2. Amparo De Benito
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  3. Begoña Ruiz
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  4. Adrianne Klijn
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Contributions

David Tomas Fornes and Adrianne Klijn, drafted the manuscript, defined the objectives, designed the work and performed the interpretation of the data obtained.

Amparo de Benito and Begoña Ruiz performed the analysis and generated the data included in the study.

All authors revised it critically and approved the version to be published.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Tomás Fornés.

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This research does not involve any human or animal participant, their data or biological material.

Conflict of Interest

David Tomás Fornés declares that he has no conflict of interest. Amparo De Benito declares that he has no conflict of interest. Begoña Ruiz declares that he has no conflict of interest. Adrianne Klijn declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Tomás Fornés, D., De Benito, A., Ruiz, B. et al. Use of Neutralizers to Improve Salmonella spp. Detection in Inhibitory Food Matrices. Food Anal. Methods 16, 1680–1689 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-023-02536-y

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