Thermal Resistance of Aeromonas hydrophila in Liquid Whole Egg ^†

Aeromonas hydrophila (AH) is a psychrotrophic spoilage bacterium and potential pathogen which has been isolated from a variety of refrigerated foods of animal origin, including raw milk, red meat, poultry, and commercially broken raw liquid whole egg (LWE). Decimal reduction times (D values) of 4 strains of AH (1 egg isolate, 2 egg processing plant isolates, 1 ATCC type strain) were determined in LWE using an immersed sealed capillary tube (ISCT) procedure. Initial populations (7.0 to 8.3 log CFU/tube in 0.05 ml LWE) were heated at 48, 51, 54, 57, and 60°C, and survivors were plated onto starch ampicillin agar (48 h at 28°C). D values ranged from 3.62 to 9.43 min (at 48°C) to 0.026 to 0.040 min (at 60°C). Both processing plant isolates were more heat resistant than the ATCC strain. Decimal reduction time curves (r² ≤ 0.98) yielded Z_D values of 5.02 to 5.59°C, similar to those for other non-spore-forming bacteria. D values of the most heat resistant AH strain were also determined in LWE at 48, 51, and 54°C using a conventional capped test tube procedure (10 ml/tube). Cells heated in test tubes yielded nonlinear (tailing) survivor curves and larger (P ≤ 0.05) apparent D values at each temperature than those obtained using the ISCT method. This study provides the first thermal resistance data for AH in LWE and the first evidence that straight-line semilogarithmic thermal inactivation kinetics may be demonstrated for Aeromonas using the ISCT procedure.