Sausage Casings as a Model for Attachment of Salmonella to Meat

Artificial sausage casings were used as a model for studying bacterial attachment to meat connective tissue. Sausage casings of known mass were exposed to suspensions of Salmonella typhimurium in 0.15 M NaCl under various time, temperature, and inoculum level regimes, then washed to remove unattached bacteria. Attached bacterial cells were enumerated using both plate counts and scanning electron microscopy. Bacterial cells attached to sausage casing surfaces within 1 min of incubation. Numbers of attached cells increased with increasing temperature and inoculum levels and with time. Rates of attachment of S. typhimurium to sausage casings were comparable with those reported for attachment to meat surfaces. Sausage casings appear to be a convenient model for examining mechanisms of bacterial attachment to meats.