Premium
A RADIOMETRIC METHOD FOR RAPID SCREENING OF COOKED FOODS FOR MICROBIAL ACCEPTABILITY
Author(s) -
ROWLEY DURWOOD B.,
PREVITE JOSEPH J.,
SRINIVASA HASSAN P.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1978.tb07397.x
Subject(s) - food science , bacteria , chemistry , biology , genetics
Radiometry shows promise as a rapid screening method for determining if cooked, frozen foods meet microbial limits indicating adequate processing conditions (aerobic plate count, APC ≤ 1.0 × 10 5 /g). In this method bacteria metabolize 14 C‐labeled substrates to 14 CO 2 . The time to detect labeled CO 2 (detection time) is inversely related to the bacterial concentration in the food. Using radiometry, about 75% of a wide variety of cooked and frozen foods were correctly classified as acceptable (≤ 1.0 × 10 5 ) or unacceptable (>1.0 × 10 5 bacteria/g) within 6 hr. A minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5 of the 404 tested foods were incorrectly classified. Twenty‐three percent of tested samples were classified as suspect and required confirmation of acceptability by the standard plate count (24–48 hr).