Zeng Hui, Khouja Bashayer A, Fay Megan L, Zhou Xinyi, Salazar Joelle K, Stewart Diana S
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Illinois Institute of Technology, Bedford Park, IL 60501, USA.
Division of Food Processing Science and Technology, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Bedford Park, IL 60501, USA.
Foods. 2025 Aug 27;14(17):2985. doi: 10.3390/foods14172985.
Peeled hard-cooked eggs (HCEs) are a popular and convenient choice for consumers and food servicers. A recent outbreak and several recalls of HCEs have highlighted their susceptibility to contamination with . HCEs are generally treated with antimicrobials, such as citric acid, to enhance the safety and quality of the product. A 2019 multistate outbreak linked to consumption of contaminated HCEs in the U.S. prompted research on the effectiveness of citric acid, and other organic acids, to control on this food product. This study therefore assessed the use of organic acids as antimicrobials against on HCEs. HCEs were dip-inoculated with resulting in an initial concentration of ca. 8 log CFU/HCE. Following air-drying for 10 min, HCEs were treated at 5 or 25 °C with water, 0.3 or 2% citric acid, or 2% acetic, lactic, or malic acid for up to 24 h to determine reductions in populations. After 24 h of treatment, 0.3% citric acid treatment resulted in population reductions of <1.24 log CFU/HCE regardless of treatment temperature, while 2% organic acids resulted in statistically significant reductions of 2.88-4.78 log CFU/HCE at 5 °C and 2.35-5.10 log CFU/HCE at 25 °C. The highest reductions on HCEs resulted from the 2% malic acid treatment at 5 °C and the 2% acetic acid treatment at 25 °C. Primary modeling was used to determine the inactivation kinetics and model fit with the Weibull and log-linear models, both estimating the rapid rates of inactivation when using the 2% malic and lactic acid treatments at 25 °C. The results of this study suggest that 2% acetic, lactic, and malic acids may be effective treatments for the control of on HCEs.
去皮熟鸡蛋（HCEs）是消费者和食品服务者喜爱且方便的选择。近期HCEs的一次疫情爆发及多次召回事件凸显了它们易受[某种病原体]污染的情况。HCEs通常用抗菌剂处理，如柠檬酸，以提高产品的安全性和质量。2019年美国多州与食用受污染HCEs相关的疫情爆发促使人们研究柠檬酸及其他有机酸对该食品控制[某种病原体]的有效性。因此，本研究评估了有机酸作为抗微生物剂对HCEs上[某种病原体]的作用。将HCEs浸入接种[某种病原体]，使其初始浓度约为8 log CFU/个HCE。空气干燥10分钟后，将HCEs在5或25℃下用水、0.3%或2%的柠檬酸或2%的乙酸、乳酸或苹果酸处理长达24小时，以确定[某种病原体]数量的减少情况。处理24小时后，无论处理温度如何，0.3%柠檬酸处理导致[某种病原体]数量减少<1.24 log CFU/个HCE，而2%的有机酸在5℃时导致[某种病原体]数量统计学上显著减少2.88 - 4.78 log CFU/个HCE，在25℃时减少2.35 - 5.10 log CFU/个HCE。HCEs上[某种病原体]数量减少最多的情况是5℃时用2%苹果酸处理和25℃时用2%乙酸处理。采用一级模型确定失活动力学，并与威布尔模型和对数线性模型进行模型拟合，两者均估计在25℃使用2%苹果酸和乳酸处理时的快速失活速率。本研究结果表明，2%的乙酸、乳酸和苹果酸可能是控制HCEs上[某种病原体]的有效处理方法。
