Survival modelling of infectious human norovirus and surrogates for high-pressure inactivation in strawberry puree

Berries contaminated with human norovirus (HuNoV) have been frequently identified as a cause of foodborne gastroenteritis. To prevent virus transmission while preserving sensory and quality parameters, non-thermal treatments, such as high-pressure processing (HPP), can be applied to the berries and products thereof. Here, strawberry purees contaminated with HuNoV genogroup I (GI.3[P13]) and II (GII.4 Sydney [P16]), along with murine norovirus (MNV) and Tulane virus (TV) serving as surrogates, were exposed to HPP at several pressure-time combinations. Virus inactivation was assessed by cell culture, including the novel human intestinal enteroids (HIE) model for HuNoVs. The infectivity results showed TV more resistant than MNV to HPP, as also confirmed by kinetic mathematical modelling. Results indicated that a holding pressure of 450 MPa and an exposure time of ≥5 min are reliable operational conditions for HPP process to successfully control viral contamination. In addition, the inactivation models deduced from MNV and TV viruses were challenged with experimental HuNoV GII.4 infectivity resulting in bias factors <1 for all treatment conditions. This finding validates the proposed models for the conservative estimation of HuNoV inactivation. Our work offers a blueprint for moving forward with inactivation studies using the HIE system, which provides useful practical information on optimum treatments for the best public health outcomes.