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SURVIVAL OF SALMONELLA IN WASTE EGG WASH WATER
Citation:
Meckes*, M C., C H. Johnson*, AND E W. Rice*. SURVIVAL OF SALMONELLA IN WASTE EGG WASH WATER. P.M. Davidson, J.Frank, J.N. Sofos (ed.), JOURNAL OF FOOD PROTECTION. International Association for Food Protection, 66(2):233-236, (2003).
Description:
The survival of salmonellae under various environmental conditions has been subject of numerous research studies. Due to low densities of these organisms in natural samples, laboratory or clinical cultures were used to ensure that the initial density of salmonellae was sufficiently high in order to observe a response over time. The ability of laboratory cultured strains to survive environmental stresses is unclear. Consequently use of sufficiently high densitites of allochthonous organisms should be used for such studies whenever possible. Spent wash waters from chicken egg processing facilities can harbor high densities of bacteria including salmonellae. For this study, total coliforms, E. coli, and Salmonella spp. were enumerated in a egg wash waters discharged from a large egg producer. We then determined how long these organisms would survive under temperature conditions of 5, 15 and 25 degree C. Results showed that the fraction of salmonellae surviving over time at a given temperature was comparable to the fraction of indicator organisms which survived. We also found that survival of these organisms varied with temperature with T 90 values of 16, 8 and less than 2 days obtained for Salmonella in spent wash water held at 5, 15 and 25 degree C respectfully. Finally, we noted that the response of laboratory derived cultures to environmental stresses mimic the allochthonous microbial population, but individual cells within the allochthonous population may survive for longer periods of time than laboratory cultured strains.