|
E. coli strains
that are the primary cause of food borne illness have growth
characteristics that are specific to their temperature regime.
| "The HACCP
concept, which people tend to forget, is divided into three areas:
control of your ingredients in terms of ingredient specifications,
second would be the process technology CCPs—your kill steps or
whatever—and third is distribution—the kinds of things that can go wrong
in distribution. And producers tend to forget about a product once its
out the door. Especially with holding temperatures at the grocery store
level. And if you know there is a potential for E. coli O157 in
beef, then maybe you better be more concerned about keeping control of
the temperature during distribution."
Dr. Ted Labuza
FoodTech Source 2003 |
These grow normally at temperatures above 45°F (7°C) but have very
slow growth below that temperature.
Generally, the threat
of this organism is highly associated with temperature abuse.
At higher temperatures, rapid growth rates are possible, but the
threat of high growth is greatly reduced at temperatures that enter
the refrigeration range.
In the graph
below, the upper curve represents a distillation of literature
sources for growth of E. coli and cognate pathogens that fit into
this particular pattern of temperature-growth curve. Any
time-temperature combination that falls above this curve represents
a threat of potential growth of E. Coli strains if sufficient
'inoculum' is present.
The lower curve is
the time-temperature response of
our CheckPoint® III Type EJ label, which we have formulated to totally encompass the
pathogen curve, yet create full shelf life flexibility for almost
any normal cold chain temperature regime. We hope to bring
this label to the market in the near future.
This label will warn of any time-temperature
conditions which could potentially represent abusive conditions that
might lead to growth of pathogens like E. coli within the
product. This L7-7 formulation will also react rapidly at
temperatures higher than the chart, giving an extreme abuse warning
in minutes. |
