Population dynamics of Salmonella spp. and Shigella spp. in ready‐to‐eat Mediterranean vegetable salads

This study evaluated the behavior of Salmonella and Shigella (5–6 log CFU/g) in tomato–cucumber (TC) salad without additives (control), TC with 1.0% lemon juice and 0.5% salt, TC with 10% wt/wt tahini, coleslaw, and toum sauce at 4, 10, or 24°C for 5 days. At 4°C, both pathogens survived well in all salads, with a 0.2–1.6 log CFU/g reduction after 5 days (except for toum sauce with >3.5 log CFU/g reduction after 4 days). At 10°C, Salmonella in the different TC salads remained constant, whereas Shigella numbers significantly increased by 1.0–1.7 log CFU/g after 5 days. Yet, both pathogens significantly decreased by 1.2–1.4 log CFU/g in coleslaw after 5 days and by >3.5 log CFU/g in toum sauce after 3 days. At 24°C, Salmonella significantly increased in TC salad without additives by 1.4 log CFU/g after 5 days and were below the detection level in the other types of salad after 5 days. However, Shigella numbers significantly increased by 1.0 log CFU/g in TC with tahini, but they significantly declined by 1.9–2.9 log CFU/g in TC salads after 5 days, and the pathogen was not detected in coleslaw and toum sauce after 4 days.