Estimation of bacterial concentrations in commercial foods by measuring ATP changes during incubation

Recently we have developed new kinetic methods of bacterial cell estimation in food products by measurement of the increase in bacterial adenosine-triphosphate (ATP) content during incubation using a conventional firefly luminometer [Fujikawa and Morozumi: Jpn. J. Food Hyg. (2002)]. The methods were the end point method and the delay method. We, in this study, evaluated these methods for bacterial concentration estimation in commercial foods. The methods were successfully applied to food products inoculated with Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus aureus. The methods were then used to estimate bacterial concentrations in commercial foods. For estimation, the kinetic parameter values were determined first from the data of bacterial strains studied previously. The bacterial concentrations estimated with these parameter values were slightly smaller than the measured concentrations for most of the food samples. The parameter values obtained with the least-squares method gave better estimations in both methods. The delay method predicted the bacterial concentrations in food products better than the end point method. This study showed that with appropriate parameter values, these methods could be useful tools for bacterial concentration estimation of commercial foods.