Predicting the behavior of Escherichia coli introduced as a postprocessingcontaminant in Shrikhand, a traditional sweetened lactic fermented milk product
A. Jagannath et al., Predicting the behavior of Escherichia coli introduced as a postprocessingcontaminant in Shrikhand, a traditional sweetened lactic fermented milk product, J FOOD PROT, 64(4), 2001, pp. 462-469
The increasing popularity of traditional milk-based foods has placed emphas
is on the need for microbial safety in food-chain establishments, as there
are ample possibilities for foodborne pathogens to occur as postprocessing
contaminants. The behavioral pattern of an enterotoxigenic strain of Escher
ichia coli D 21 introduced as a postprocessing contaminant in shrikhand, a
traditional sweetened lactic fermented milk product, was studied with varia
bles of initial inoculum (4.3, 5.3, and 6.3 log(10) CFU/g), storage tempera
ture (4, 10, and 16 degreesC), and storage period (4, 9, and 14 days). Duri
ng storage of shrikhand prepared individually with Lactobacillus delbruecki
ssp. bulgaricus CFR 2028 and Lactococcus lactis ssp. cremoris B-634, there
was a steady decrease in the viable count of E. coli that was proportional
to the initial inoculum of E. coli introduced into shrikhand. The data wer
e subjected to multivariate analysis, and equations were derived to predict
the behavior of E. coli in shrikhand. The predicted values for the probabl
e survival of E. coil showed good agreement with the experimental values wi
th a majority of these predictions being fail-safe. The values of statistic
al indices showed that the model fits ranged between extremely good and sat
isfactory. Response surface plots were generated to describe the behavioral
pattern of E. coli. The derived models and response surface plots enabled
prediction of the survival of E. coli in shrikhand as a function of initial
inoculum levels, storage temperatures, and storage periods of shrikhand. T
hese predictions were valid within the limits of the experimental variables
used to develop the model.