Attachment and Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 on In-Shell Hazelnuts

Abstract

The multistate <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) O157:H7 outbreak associated with in-shell hazelnuts highlights the pathogen's ability to involve non-traditional vehicles in foodborne infections. Furthermore, it underscores significant gaps in our knowledge of pathogen survivability and persistence on nuts. Therefore, this study investigated the ability of <i>E. coli</i> O157:H7 to attach and survive on in-shell hazelnuts. In-shell hazelnuts were inoculated with a four-strain mixture of <i>E. coli</i> O157:H7 at 7.6 log colony forming units (CFU)/nut by wet or dry inoculation, stored at ambient conditions (24 ± 1 °C; 40% ± 3% relative humidity (RH) and sampled for twelve months. For the attachment assay, in-shell hazelnuts were inoculated and the adherent population was enumerated at 30 s^-1 h following inoculation. Irrespective of the inoculation method, ~5 log CFU of adherent <i>E. coli</i> O157:H7 was recovered from the hazelnuts as early as 30 s after inoculation. Conversely, pathogen survival was significantly reduced under dry inoculation with samples being enrichment negative after five months of storage (<i>p</i> < 0.05). On the other hand, wet inoculation led to a significantly longer persistence of the pathogen with ~3 log CFU being recovered from the in-shell nuts at 12 months of storage (<i>p</i> < 0.05). These results indicate that <i>E. coli</i> O157:H7 can survive in significant numbers on in-shell hazelnuts when stored under ambient conditions.