Effects of Polyphosphate Additives on the pH of Processed Chicken Exudates and the Survival of Campylobacter

• Published in: Journal of food protection Vol. 74; no. 10; pp. 1735 - 1740
• Main Authors: Gunther IV, Nereus W, He, Yiping, Fratamico, Pina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Des Moines, IA International Association for Food Protection 01.10.2011; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Additives; Animal productions; Animals; Aves; Bacteria; bacterial contamination; Bacterial diseases; Bacterial infections; Biological and medical sciences; Campylobacter; Campylobacter - drug effects; Campylobacter - growth & development; Campylobacter coli; Campylobacter jejuni; chicken meat; Chickens; Colony Count, Microbial; Colony-forming cells; Common cold; Consumer Product Safety; Experiments; Exudates; Food; food additives; food contamination; Food Contamination - analysis; Food Contamination - prevention & control; Food Handling - methods; Food industries; Food microbiology; Food processing; Food products; Food safety; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; marinating; meat extracts; meat processing; mechanism of action; Microbial Viability - drug effects; Oxygen; pathogen survival; Pathogens; pH effects; Phosphate; Phosphates; polyphosphates; Polyphosphates - pharmacology; Poultry; pyrophosphates; Shock; Sodium; sodium phosphate; sodium polyphosphate; sodium tripolyphosphate; Storage conditions; Survival; Terrestrial animal productions; tetrasodium pyrophosphate; trisodium phosphate; Vertebrates; Farming animal; Exudate; Poultry; Campylobacteraceae; Polyphosphates; Survival; Vertebrata; Additive; Meat animals; pH; Bacteria; Chicken; Aves; Campylobacter
• DOI: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-10-510
• ISSN: 1944-9097; 0362-028X

Campylobacter spp. are nutritionally fastidious organisms that are sensitive to normal atmospheric oxygen levels and lack homologues of common cold shock genes. At first glance these bacteria seem ill equipped to persist within food processing and storage conditions; however, they survive in numbers sufficient to cause the largest number of foodborne bacterial disease annually. A mechanism proposed to play a role in Campylobacter persistence is the addition of polyphosphate-containing marinades during poultry processing. Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli strains incubated in chicken exudate treated with a marinade demonstrated considerable survival advantages (1 - 4 log CFU/ml) over the same strains incubated in untreated chicken exudate. Polyphosphates, which constitute a large portion of the commercial poultry marinades, were shown to account for a majority of the observed influence of the marinades on Campylobacter survival. When six different food grade polyphosphates (disodium pyrophosphate, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, pentasodium triphosphate, sodium polyphosphate, monosodium phosphate, trisodium phosphate) were utilized to compare the survival of Campylobacter strains in chicken exudate, significant differences were observed with regards to Campylobacter survival between the different polyphosphates. It was then determined that the addition of polyphosphates to chicken exudate increased the pH of the exudate with the more sodiated polyphosphates increasing the pH to a greater degree than the less sodiated polyphosphates. It was confirmed that the change in pH mediated by polyphosphates is “the mode of action” responsible for the increased Campylobacter survival.