Yoghurt: an unlikely source of Campylobacter jejuni/coli

Knowledge of the relative insensitivity of Campylobacter jejuni to moderately acid environments prompted us to study its survival in different batches of yoghurt of pH range 4.2-5.3 and the role of organic or inorganic acid in the die-off of this pathogen. None of the 11 strains of C. jejuni or C. coli survived more than 25 min in yoghurt. Suspecting that this rapid die-off cannot be accounted for by the pH of the yoghurt we compared the survival rates of C. jejuni in milk, whose pH had been adjusted by lactic, propionic and hydrochloric acid respectively, with that of yoghurt. Even for an inoculum of 10(5)-10(8) cfu/ml propionic acid was bactericidal in minutes. Lactic acid reduced the bacterial populations by 3-5 logs in 30 min. Strong inorganic acid HCl, by contrast, had little or no effect on the populations. Although lactic acid is quite bactericidal for C. jejuni, it is apparently not the only factor to which the prompt elimination of this pathogen from yoghurt could be attributed.