• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.152-157
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• 2006

Enterobacter sakazakii, designated as an unique microbial species in 1980, may cause bacteremia, necrotizing enterocolitis and infant meningitis. The distribution and the thermostability of E. sakazakii in unprocessed ready-to-eat (RTE) agricultural products of 252 and in 25 powdered infant formulas (PIF) were analyzed. Eighty one, 50, 43, and 47% of brown rice, pumpkin, potato, and carrot samples, respectively, had aerobic plate counts (ARC) in the range of 5 log CFU/g or more. Almost all the other products sampled had APC of approximately 2 log CFU/g. Fifty three, 75, 67, and 68% of banana, pumpkin, soybean, and carrot had Enterobacteriaceae counts approximating 3 log CFU/g. Sixty six percent of the brown rice tested had Enterobacteriaceae counts approximating 5-6 log CFU/g. E. sakazakii was isolated from 3/25(12%), 4/23(17%), 1/24(4%), and 1/27(4%) of PIF, brown rice, laver, and tomato samples, respectively. D-values were 3.52-4.79 min at 60 and $D_{60}-values$ were similar as the isolates reported. Thermal inactivation of four thermovariant E. sakazakii strains during the rehydration of PIF with hot water were investigated. At $50^{\circ}C$, the levels of E. sakazakii decreased one log CFU/g for 4-6 min and thereafter the levels remained stable for 20 min. At $60^{\circ}C$, inactivation by about 2 log CFU/g occurred for 20 min. Therefore, the unprocessed agricultural products might be a source of contamination for PIF when used as an ingredient after drying and pulverization. Rehydration of PIF for infant feeding with a water temperature of $60^{\circ}C$ rather than $50^{\circ}C$, as recommended by the manufacturers, may be helpful in the reduction of potential E. sakazakii risk.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.1-12
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• 2014

HMR is a home-style food product designed for convenience and cooked outside the home leaving out cumbersome cooking process and consumed at home. The present paper aims to find out factors that influence the consumption of HMR by analyzing data on food consumption during the 3 years between December 2010 and November 2013. Following the classification of Costa et al. (2001), this study categorized HMR products as 3 types as follows: C1 (ready to eat), C2 (ready to heat) and C3 (ready to cook), and examined factors affecting purchase rate and per capita purchase price for each type of HMR product. The results of our analysis show that only the purchase rate of C3 products was influenced by whether the purchaser was housewife with job or not. For those who do not live together with parents, per capita purchase price for HMR was high; and the more they ate out, the higher the purchase rate of HMR was.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.174-181
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• 2009

The consumption of "ready-to-eat" agricultural products is recently increasing and the safety of these agricultural products is forefront of public concerns. The 120 samples of paprikas, strawberries and tomatoes, which are the representative exported agricultural products, were purchased at the department stores and discount stores in Daejeon. And we determined the microbiological and parasitological contamination level of these agricultural products using culture media, multiplex PCR, commercial bacterial detection kit and microscopy, and also evaluated the decontamination method. Mean counts of total aerobic bacteria from these agricultural products ranged from $1.3{\times}10^4$ CFU/g to $1.8{\times}10^5$ CFU/g, and mean counts of coliforms ranged from $1.4{\times}10^3$ CFU/g to $9.6{\times}10^3$ CFU/g. There was no significant difference in the level of bacterial contamination between the agricultural products from department stores and the ones from discount stores. Strawberry showed the highest contamination level for the bacteria and we also found the unidentified parasite eggs. Enterobacter cloacae was the most frequently isolated bacteria strain, but no food poisoning pathogenic bacteria except Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the products by multiplex PCR. Compared to unwashed products, tab water-washed ones showed 80% decrease of the counts of total aerobic bacteria on the agricultural products, and the rates decreased more by incorporating detergent or ultrasonic wave treatment. We concluded that the biological contamination levels among paprikas, strawberries and tomatoes were the highest in strawberries, but there were not significant difference according to distribution systems.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.32 no.4 s.91
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• pp.316-323
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• 2006

This study was performed to assess the microbial contamination level for the processing of sandwich products in the middle of Gyeongnam province from December 2004 to January 2005. A total of 85 samples were collected from 5 sandwich shops. These samples were tested sanitary indication bacteria, such as aerobic Plate count(APC), coliforms, and Escherchia coli and pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus. As a result of APC and coliform count ranged 0-4.59 $log_{10}$ CFU/(ml, g, 100 $cm^2$, hand) and 0-3.86 $log_{10}$ CFU/(ml, g, 100 $cm^2$, hand), respectively. Especially, the highly contaminated items for APC were confirmed 1.64-4.59 $log_{10}$ CFU/g to employees', raw materials and sandwich in all items. Escherichia coli was isolated from 5 samples. Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus were detected in 1 sample and 11 samples from utensil, raw materials and sandwiches, respectively. However, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. were not detected in anywhere. For the production of safety sandwich, education of sanitation for employees, control of raw materials, and continuous monitoring for microorganism will be required.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.323-329
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• 2013

Strawberries are among the leading ready-to-eat agricultural products that have superior taste and nutrition. Thus, consumer concerns about the safety of eating strawberries are growing. To evaluate the contamination levels of strawberries according to their cultivation methods (nutriculture, pesticide-free culture and organic farming) and parts [fruit (flesh), stalk (pedunle) and leaf (calyx)], 1,020 parts of strawberry samples were collected at 12 farms in Nonsan-si and quantitatively or qualitatively examined for the indicators of food safety and food poisoning bacteria. The total aerobic bacteria count in the whole samples was 2.3~6.8 ${\log}_{10}$ CFU/g, and coliform bacteria were detected in 14.2% of the whole samples with a contamination level range of 2.1~4.5 log CFU/g. E. coli were detected in 0.9% of the whole samples with a contamination level range of 2.1~2.8 log CFU/g. The analysis of the bacterial levels according to the cultivation methods showed that the total aerobic bacteria and coliform counts were higher in the strawberries that were grown via organic farming than in those that were grown via nutriculture and pesticide-free culture. However, the E. coli counts of the strawberries that were grown via organic farming and via pesticide-free culture were similar and differed from that of the strawberries that were grown via nutriculture. The analysis of the contamination levels according to the parts of the strawberries showed that the total aerobic bacteria, coliform and E. coli counts of the fruits, stalks and leaves of the strawberries did not significantly differ. Staphylococcus aureus was detected in two organically grown strawberries, but Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli O157:H7 were not detected in the whole samples. These results show that the bacterial contamination levels of the strawberries differed based on their cultivation methods. Thus, a suitable method of reducing the bacterial contamination levels of strawberries according to their farming methods is needed.