Open AccessC arnobacterium divergens – a dominating bacterium of pork meat juice
Author(s) -
Rieder Gabriele,
Krisch Linda,
Fischer Harald,
Kaufmann Maria,
Maringer Adolf,
Wessler Silja
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2012.02584.x
Subject(s) - food spoilage , serratia , biology , food science , meat spoilage , bacteria , microbiology and biotechnology , food microbiology , 16s ribosomal rna , population , pseudomonas , medicine , genetics , environmental health
Nonspoiled food that nevertheless contains bacterial pathogens constitutes a much more serious health problem than spoiled food, as the consumer is not warned beforehand. However, data on the diversity of bacterial species in meat juice are rare. To study the bacterial load of fresh pork from ten different distributors, we applied a combination of the conventional culture‐based and molecular methods for detecting and quantifying the microbial spectrum of fresh pork meat juice samples. Altogether, we identified 23 bacterial species of ten different families analyzed by 16 S rRNA gene sequencing. The majority of isolates were belonging to the typical spoilage bacterial population of lactic acid bacteria ( LAB ), E nterococcaceae , and P seudomonadaceae . Several additional isolates were identified as S taphylococcus spp. and B acillus spp. originating from human and animal skin and other environmental niches including plants, soil, and water. C arnobacterium divergens , a LAB contributing to the spoilage of raw meat even at refrigeration temperature, was the most frequently isolated species in our study (5/10) with a bacterial load of 10 3 –10 7 CFU mL −1 . In several of the analyzed pork meat juice samples, two bacterial faecal indicators, S erratia grimesii and S erratia proteamaculans , were identified together with another opportunistic food‐borne pathogen, S taphylococcus equorum . Our data reveal a high bacterial load of fresh pork meat supporting the potential health risk of meat juice for the end consumer even under refrigerated conditions.