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- Uhlig, E., et al.
(författare)
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The live bacterial load and microbiota composition of prepacked “ready-to-eat” leafy greens during household conditions, with special reference to E. coli
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Food Microbiology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0168-1605. ; 377
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ready-to-eat (RTE) leafy greens are popular products that unfortunately have been associated with numerous foodborne illness outbreaks. Since the influence of consumer practices is essential for their quality and safety, the objective of this study was to analyze the microbiota of RTE products throughout shelf life during simulated household conditions. Products from different companies were analyzed in terms of plate counts, and resealed and unopened packages were compared. High bacterial loads were found, up to a total plate count of 9.6 log10 CFU/g, and Enterobacteriaceae plate counts up to 6.0 CFU/g on the expiration date. The effect of consumer practice varied, thus no conclusions regarding resealed or unopened bags could be drawn. The tested products contained opportunistic pathogens, such as Enterobacter homaechei, Hafnia paralvei and Pantoea agglomerans. Amplicon sequencing revealed that the relative abundance of major taxonomic groups changed during shelf life; Pseudomonadaceae and Xanthomonadaceae decreased, while Flavobacteriaceae and Marinomonadaceae inceased. Inoculation with E. coli CCUG 29300T showed that the relative abundance of Escherichia-Shigella was lower on rocket than on other tested leafy greens. Inoculation with E. coli strain 921 indicate growth at the beginning of shelf-life time, while E. coli 731 increases at the end, seemingly able to adapt to cold storage conditions. The high levels of live microorganisms, the detection of opportunistic pathogens, and the ability of E. coli strains to grow at refrigeration temperature raise concerns and indicate that the shelf life may be shortened to achieve a safer product. Due to variations between products, further studies are needed to define how long the shelf-life of these products should be, to ensure a safe product even at the end of the shelf-life period.
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| 4. |
- Uhlig, E., et al.
(författare)
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Use of bacterial strains antagonistic to Escherichia coli for biocontrol of spinach : A field trial
- 2021
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Ingår i: Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies. - : Elsevier BV. - 1466-8564. ; 74
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To counteract global food safety hazards related to raw consumption of ready-to-eat leafy vegetables, a method to improve bacterial status using antagonistic bacteria was studied under field conditions. This is the first study to identify potential Escherichia coli antagonists from the native microbiota on leafy green vegetables and evaluate their effect in an industrial field production setting. Bacterial strains were isolated from different types of leafy green vegetables and selected upon their effect against E. coli in vitro, and out of 295 tested bacterial strains, 37 showed an antagonistic effect. Four of those antagonistic strains were coated in separate treatments onto spinach seeds and planted in the field. Both seeds and plants were analyzed by Illumina MiSeq next generation sequencing (NGS), and it was seen that the microbiota of the plants contained lower relative abundance of plant and human pathogenic genera. Higher β-diversity was observed for the samples treated with Bacillus coagulans LMG P-32205 and B. coagulans LMG P-32206 compared to control, indicating that those strains have induced substantial changes in the native microbiota of the leaves. A reduction of Escherichia-Shigella was seen for two of the isolates (Pseudomonas cedrina LMG P-32207 and Pseudomonas punonenis LMG P-32204) as the seeds developed into plants. Seeds inoculated with two of the strains (B. coagulans LMG P-32205 and B. coagulans LMG P-32206) had increased levels of Lactobacillaceae, and treatment with B. coagulans LMG P-32206 resulted in lower levels of Pantoea (from 31.4 to 12.2%). These results encourage the usage of bacterial antagonists as part of a global solution to reduce the risk of human pathogens on leafy green vegetables.
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