Quality and Control of Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens in Salted Egg Production

Abstract

Traditional salted egg production often pertains some microbial contaminations inthe food causing food hazard which is a major concern in food biotechnology industry.Brining in lime juice are introduced to control these hazard in order to guarantee the safetyand reserve sensory acceptance of the product. The aim of this study was to assess themicrobiological quality of salted eggs based on Thai Industrial Standard Institute (TISI) andto assess the possibility of lime juice to control the hazard and their sensory quality. It wasfound that procedure used in making salted eggs nowadays has been passed themicrobiological quality standard in term of mesophilic aerobic bacteria and Salmonella spp. ;however has not been passed the microbiological quality standard in terms of hazard relatedto Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens. Lime juice was added into briningsolution to observe its effectiveness in inhibiting the growth of S. aureus and C. perfringensin the production of salted eggs. Our data showed that 1.35% (v/v) lime juice and pH 4.59 inthe brining process could significantly eliminate S. aureus and C. perfringens in salted eggs.Moreover, this condition could maintain the safety quality but could not retain the sensoryacceptance. Our findings could lead to development of a standard procedure in salted eggproduction industries to improve quality of the food product.