Microbiological and Modeling Approach to Derive Performance Objectives for Bacillus cereus Group in Ready‐to‐Eat Salads

Alessandra De Cesare, Silvia Vitali, Marcello Trevisani, Federica Bovo and Gerardo Manfreda

Risk Analysis, 2017, vol. 37, issue 3, 408-420

Abstract: In this article, the performance objectives (POs) for Bacillus cereus group (BC) in celery, cheese, and spelt added as ingredients in a ready‐to‐eat mixed spelt salad, packaged under modified atmosphere, were calculated using a Bayesian approach. In order to derive the POs, BC detection and enumeration were performed in nine lots of naturally contaminated ingredients and final product. Moreover, the impact of specific production steps on the BC contamination was quantified. Finally, a sampling plan to verify the ingredient lots' compliance with each PO value at a 95% confidence level (CL) was defined. To calculate the POs, detection results as well as results above the limit of detection but below the limit of quantification (i.e., censored data) were analyzed. The most probable distribution of the censored data was determined and two‐dimensional (2D) Monte Carlo simulations were performed. The PO values were calculated to meet a food safety objective of 4 log10 cfu of BC for g of spelt salad at the time of consumption. When BC grows during storage between 0.90 and 1.90 log10 cfu/g, the POs for BC in celery, cheese, and spelt ranged between 1.21 log10 cfu/g for celery and 2.45 log10 cfu/g for spelt. This article represents the first attempt to manage the concept of PO and 2D Monte Carlo simulation in the flow chart of a complex food matrix, including raw and cooked ingredients.

Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12617

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:riskan:v:37:y:2017:i:3:p:408-420

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Risk Analysis from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().