Commercial biopreservatives combined with salt and sugar to control Listeria monocytogenes during smoked salmon processing.

Three commercial antimicrobials, applied during the salting stage in the preparation of cold-smoked salmon, were investigated for their effect on the behavior of Listeria monocytogenes. Fresh salmon inoculated with L. monocytogenes INIA 2530 was treated with three bacteriocin-based commercial biopreservatives, which were applied in combination with a salt-sugar mix. The product was kept at 8°C for 7 days. L. monocytogenes grew by approximately 3 log CFU/g in control salmon (without the salt-sugar mix or biopreservatives). Pathogen levels were reduced by the three biopreservatives investigated. After 7 days at 8°C, L. monocytogenes counts in salmon treated with biopreservatives combined with the salt-sugar mix were significantly lower than those observed in salmon treated with only salt and sugar. At the end of storage, salmon treated with biopreservative derived from Pediococcus acidilactici had pathogen levels 3.6 log CFU/g lower than in control salmon (without the salt-sugar mix) and 1.5 log CFU/g lower than in the samples treated with only salt and sugar. The application of commercial biopreservatives to fresh salmon during the dry-salting stage might help control L. monocytogenes growth, thus enhancing the safety of cold-smoked salmon during refrigerated storage.