Antimicrobial Efficacy of spp. Isolated from Indian Meat against and in Spinach Leaves.

Five strains (CM17, CM19, PM30, PM32, and PM36) previously isolated from Indian meat showed promising antimicrobial activity against food pathogens in screening assay. This study evaluates the efficacy of these isolates against Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank (MTCC) 443 and (MTCC 657) in spinach leaves. Challenge studies were conducted by inoculating and at 6 to 7 Log CFU/g of the leaves respectively and treating them with cell free supernatant (CFS) of 48 h cultures of the isolates. The samples were stored at 4°C and analyzed over a period of 5 d. The study was conducted in triplicates and statistical analysis was carried out using one-way Anova. The counts of the pathogens did not increase over the 5 d period in the control samples, without any treatment. Whereas in the case of CFS treatments, significant reduction (p<0.05) was observed in both and from 1 to 5 d with all the 5 strains as compared to the control. The counts of dropped by 0.5 to 1 log by 5 d, with PM 36 showing the highest reduction (1 log). In the case of , 1.1 to 1.5 log reduction was observed by 5 d, with again PM 36 showing the highest reduction (1.5). The overall results indicate that the isolates (specifically PM36) not only showed efficacy in studies but are also proved to be effective in food matrix making them potential clean label antimicrobial alternatives for food application.