The usage of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) to control food-borne pathogens in hummus

ABSTRACT

With the increasing demand for fresher, higher quality, minimally processed and safer food, there is a strong necessity to develop non-thermal processing techniques. Also for hummus, which is popular all around the world. In this work, the effect of refrigerated storage on the survival of pathogens in hummus treated by high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) (500?MPa/10?min/room temperature) was evaluated. The cocktail of two Salmonella, four Listeria monocytogenes and two Escherichia coli strains was used in this study. All pathogen types were able to survive in hummus during 60 days of refrigerated storage. HHP-treated samples plated on day 0 successfully achieved a?>?5 log cfu/g reduction for all pathogen types. No residual survivors were present after 30 and 60 days in any of the HHP-treated samples. These results demonstrate that HHP may be a useful technique for the inactivation of pathogens and therefore helpful in designing non-thermal HHP conditions for pressurization of hummus.