<i>ESCHERICHIA COLI</i> O157:H7 AND FERMENTED SAUSAGES: A REVIEW¹

Abstract

Escherichia coli O157:H7 emerged as a foodborne pathogen in 1982 and can cause three major disease syndromes (hemorrhagic colitis, hemolytic uremic syndrome, and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura). Outbreaks caused by E. coli O157:H7 have been linked to ground beef, milk, apple cider, lettuce, radish and alfalfa sprouts, and water. In 1994, an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infection was linked to dry, fermented, pork and beef salami. In response to this first implication of a dry fermented sausage product, the United States Department of Agriculture/Food Safety Inspection Service developed guidelines requiring sausage manufacturers to validate that their processes achieve a five‐log reduction of E. coli O157:H7. Various validation studies have shown that E. coli O157:H7 is able to survive in sausages that are fermented and then dried to various moisture‐to‐protein ratios of 2.3, 1.9, or 1.6:1. Additional thermal processing methods or longer fermentation processes were utilized to achieve 5‐log reductions.