Completed Research

This research identified ingredients used in brining solutions that may have antimicrobial effects during storage and/or enhance thermal inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7 during cooking of moisture-enhanced beef products.

This white paper examined data on outbreaks caused by non-O157 STEC E. coli and for information on prevalence of these bacteria in meat, meat-producing animals, and other potential food and non-food vectors. The white paper also looked at data on the effectiveness of current interventions for controlling these foodborne pathogens and on recently devised methods for detecting these bacteria.

This research intended to validate the effectiveness of hot water, lactic acid, FreshFx, Bromitize, peroxyacetic acid, and SANOVA on the inactivation of STEC inoculated fresh beef. Non-O157 STEC have come under increasing regulatory oversight.

The objective of the proposed study was to determine whether interventions known for reducing Escherichia coli O157:H7 contamination on beef trimmings were also effective against E. coli O157:H7, non-O157 STEC (O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145), and parent and derived Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Newport strains.

The overall objective is to validate effectiveness of antimicrobial compound treatments on inactivation of STEC and Salmonella (MDR versus non-MDR strains) inoculated fresh beef. AMIF recently funded ARS to conduct a similar study on the following non-O157 STEC: O26, O103, O111, and O145. This study completed the work by adding the other two non-O157 STEC from the CDC’s top six and include MDR and non-MDR Salmonella Typhimurium and Newport.

This research evaluated peroxyacetic acid, novel organic acids alone or in combination with a non-ionic surfactant on beef trimmings against E. coli O157:H7, O26, O103, O111, O121, O45, and O145 and Salmonella Typhimurium DT 104, Newport MDR-AmpC to achieve maximum ground beef product safety without altering product quality.

Research demonstrated that STEC O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145 strains expressing different flagellar types and variants of intimin adhered to bovine colonic epithelium and induced the formation of attaching-effacing lesions. Interventions that block the effects of flagella, intimin, and other adherence mechanisms in non-O157 STEC may be effective for pre-harvest control of non-O157 STEC in cattle.

This project determined the prevalence, level, and types of O157 and non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) in cattle from different production systems.

This study focused on developing new Appendix A style time-temperature tables for non-beef ready-to-eat products such as turkey deli-breast and boneless ham. Researchers also compared the baseline results from the original work that was conducted to develop Appendix A to the results of this study for Salmonella in roast beef and confirmed the validity of its effectiveness for pathogenic E. coli and L. monocytogenes strains.

This white paper defined multi-drug resistance as related to different bacterial pathogens; discusses sources of multi-drug resistance and how resistance genes are transmitted among different strains and different species of bacteria; identifies multi-drug resistant bacteria associated with different foods and food production animals; evaluates efficacy of interventions to prevent development of multidrug resistance and to prevent contamination of foods with multidrug resistant pathogens; and recommends risk mitigation strategies in a preventive food safety process management system.