Estimating Salmonella Typhimurium Growth on Chicken Breast Fillets Under Simulated Less-Than-Truckload Dynamic...

Companies may have insufficient freight to fill an entire truck/trailer, and instead only pay for space that their products occupy (i.e., "less-than-truckload" shipping; LTL). As LTL delivery vehicles make multiple stops, there is an increased opportunity for product temperature abuse, which may increase microbial food safety risk. To assess LTL effects on Salmonella Typhimurium growth, commercially produced boneless skinless chicken breast fillets were inoculated and incubated under dynamic 2-h temperature cycles (i.e., 2 h at 4°C and then 2 h at 25°C), mimicking a commercially relevant LTL scenario. Bacterial kinetics were measured over 24 h and then observations compared with predictions of three published Salmonella secondary models by bias and accuracy factor measurement. One model produced more "fail-safe" estimates of Salmonella growth than the other models, although all models were defined as "acceptable." These developed tertiary models can help shippers assess supply chain performance and produce proactive food safety risk management systems.