jueves, 10 de septiembre de 2015

So, the Peanut butter is a microbiological risk for your health?

News treatment to recover the confidence to eat peanut butter.

Since the serious cases of Salmonella linked to peanut butter occurred in recent years in USA, the most serious when peanut butter and peanut paste produced by Peanut Corporation of America were later found to be contaminated, triggering an outbreak in 2008 and 2009 that killed nine people and sickened some 700 others, consumers have lost confidence in one of the essential products in Americans daily diet. And with good reason because well know and trusted companies, including "Great Value" present in Chile, have failed to remove the Salmonella contamination from their products.
But, how the salmonella reach the peanut butter? Peanuts are grown in fields, along with manure, mud and other materials, so the presence of Salmonella is always possible. Consumer knew anything about it leaving their food security in the hands of the companies so when they fail, consumers are the affected by these failures.
Related to this, Won-Jae Song and Dong-Hyun Kang, scientist from Seoul National University, In the February 2016 edition of Food Microbiology, report their experiments to inactivate 3 serovars of Salmonella in peanut butter by subjecting it to 915 MHz microwave heating.
“This study evaluated the efficacy of a 915 MHz microwave with 3 different levels to inactivate 3 serovars of Salmonella in peanut butter. Peanut butter inoculated with Salmonella enterica serovar Senftenberg, S. enterica serovar Typhimurium and S. enterica serovar Tennessee were treated with a 915 MHz microwave with 2, 4 and 6 kW and acid and peroxide values and color changes were determined after 5 min of microwave heating. Salmonella populations were reduced with increasing treatment time and treatment power,” according to the researchers’ abstract.
“Six kW 915 MHz microwave treatment for 5 min reduced these three Salmonella serovars by 3.24–4.26 log CFU/g. Four and two kW 915 MHz microwave processing for 5 min reduced these Salmonella serovars by 1.14–1.48 and 0.15–0.42 log CFU/g, respectively. Microwave treatment did not affect acid, peroxide, or color values of peanut butter. These results demonstrate that 915 MHz microwave processing can be used as a control method for reducing Salmonella in peanut butter without producing quality deterioration,” they wrote.
While it is true the results exposes that there no significant change observed of color, acid, peroxide value and quality in the peanut butter and clearly seems to be a method of easy application, the study is focused to be used as a control method for peanut butter pasteurization there is no mention that can be applied at home so is not recommendable to do this.





Aporte: Nicolina Prat

No hay comentarios.: