Effects of Thermally-Assisted and High-Pressure Processing on Background Microbiota and the Load of a Minimally Processed Commodity.

The current study investigated the impact of treatments with elevated hydrostatic pressure (500 MPa) for inactivation of on smoked rainbow trout () at high and low inoculation levels. The temperature values of the trials were set at 4.4 and 60.0 °C, adjusted with a circulating water bath connected to a stainless steel jacket surrounding the pressure processing chamber. Before pressure processing, the counts (selective counts of PALCAM, mean ± SD) of were 6.45 ± 0.1 log CFU/g and were reduced ( < 0.05) to 3.72 ± 0.3, and <1.48 ± 0.8 log CFU/g after 10 min of treatment at 4.4 and 60.0 °C, respectively. Treatments of low inoculation level samples were similarly efficacious and resulted in a reduction ( < 0.05) of the pathogen to 1.62 ± 0.3 and <0.82 ± 0.0 log CFU/g for treatments at 4.4 and 60.0 °C, respectively. At 4.4 °C, linear D-value and non-linear k were 8.68 and 0.50, and 5.81 and 2.41 for high-inoculation and low-inoculation samples, respectively. Application of hydrostatic pressure at 500 MPa at cold and elevated temperatures was efficacious for up to 5.03 log CFU/g reduction of illustrating the potential for further adaptation of this technology.