FECAL STREPTOCOCCI IN FOODS TIME-TEMPERATURE EFFECTS ON

Abstract

Available evidence indicates that enterococci may, on occasion, be associated with foo~ poisoning; however, their role as etiological agents of gastroenteritis is not universally accepted. In those instances in which they have been incriminated, they have usually represented the predominant flaro, and other types of food-poisoning organisms were present in small numbers or undetected (1-3). In view of the inconclusive results of feeding experiments conducted by various investigators (3-9 ), their role is unknown. Nevertheless, until additional information is provided, which unequivocally demonstrates that this group is or is not pathogenic, the entry or development of large numbers of enterococci in foods should be avoided. Of the various procedures by which microbial dewlopment may be prevented in food, the control of time and temperature is achieved most easily and is, therefore, most widely used. In practice, temperature control is often based on operational experience rather than the results of experimental timetemperature data on the behavior of' microbial pathogens in perishable foods. Due to the fairly recent and rapid technological development of the food industry, many products and processes are available today that did not exist a few years ago. Precooked ready-to-serve foods, perishable meals vended from machines, pressureor vacuum-packed items packaged in unique and newly developed forms and containers, and dehydro-frozen foods are a few samples of modern food processing. Knowledge relative to the precautions necessary to safeguard the public health has not kept pace with rapidly advancing technological developments, and the problem of insuring adequate time-temperature control over perishable foods has become vastly complicated. For this reason, our laboratories have undertaken to develop an organized body of information on the effects of time and temperature upon the response of various food-poisoning bacteria in potentially haz-