Abstract
Queso fresco, is a Hispanic non-fermented cheese highly susceptible to contamination with L. monocytogenes. This research was aimed to determine the effect of GRAS antimicrobial ingredients to control L. monocytogenes. Antimicrobials included caprylic acid (CA), Nisaplin® (N, 2.5% nisin), a mixture of sodium lactate and sodium diacetate (SL/SD), Lactococcus lactis sbp. lactis DPC 3147, monolaurin, and lactic acid (LA). Batches of queso fresco curds were inoculated with 104 CFU/g and stored at 4 °C for three weeks. During storage the count of L. monocytogenes reached 7 to 8 Log CFU/g in control samples. Most individual antimicrobial treatments resulted in less than 1 Log CFU/g reductions in final counts, with the exception of N (0.5 g/kg) and CA (2.9 g/kg) that caused more than 3 and 5 Log CFU/g differences with controls, respectively. Mixtures of ingredients were more effective in inhibiting L. monocytogenes growth, and treatments with N and CA consistently delivered 6 Log CFU/g less counts than controls. Supplementation of 12 g/kg LA to treatments with SL/SD (3%/0.22%) caused differences of more than 4 Log CFU/g in final Listeria populations. Samples treated with the binary mixtures of N and CA (0.5 and 0.7 g/kg, respectively) were evaluated in a consumer panel (n = 67). Panelists slightly preferred control and commercial over treated samples, but all samples were in average rated between “slightly liking” and “moderately liking.” These experiments indicated that combined use of antimicrobial ingredients may be an effective way to control the population of Listeria monocytogenes in queso fresco.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 47-55 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Food Microbiology |
Volume | 64 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Dr. Martin Wiedmann from Cornell University (U.S.A.) is gratefully acknowledged for providing L. monocytogenes strains R2–500, N1–227, N3–031, J1–110 and R2–502 and Dr. R. Paul Ross from University College Cork (Ireland) for providing L. lactis sbp. lactis strain DPC 3147. Rex Infanger from Danisco, Inc. is acknowledged for kindly providing nisin (Nisaplin
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016
Keywords
- Antimicrobial mixtures
- Caprylic acid
- Listeria monocytogenes
- Nisin
- Queso fresco
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article