Survival of Clostridium perfringens During Baking and Holding of Turkey Stuffing1

Abstract

WOODBURN, MARGY (Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.), AND CHUNG H. KIM. Survival of Clostridium perfringens during baking and holding of turkey stuffing. Appl. Microbiol. 14:914-920. 1966.-Vegetative cells of three strains of Clostridium perfringens were used as inoculum for bread and onion stuffing for eight lightweight and eight heavyweight turkeys. When stuffed turkeys were refrigerated (5 a 1 C for 24 i 2 hr), a mean count of 580 vegetative cells of C. perfringens per gram of stuffing was reduced to undetectable levels (<6 per gram) in six of the eight. An inoculum of spores of the three strains used in a second series survived refrigerated holding with no change in numbers. During cooking of the stuffed turkeys in an oven at 94 C, numbers of vegetative cells fell steadily and numbers of spores remained constant or increased slightly (2 of 16 stuffings), until the temperature of the stuffing rose above that permitting growth. Viable C. perfringens cells were recovered from the stuffings at the end of cooking plus 1 hr for the group inoculated with the spore suspension. Storage of these stuffings resulted in marked reductions in numbers after 6 days at 5 1 C and in increases after 24 4 2 hr at 23 + 1 C. Cells of a strain which produces spores not considered heat-resistant survived in stuffing in birds cooked to doneness in ovens at 94, 163, and 232 C. In accepted methods of cooking stuffed turkeys, C. perfringens contaminants may survive and create a hazard if subsequent storage is in a temperature range which permits their multiplication.Although a number of investigations on the

Effect of Cookery and Holding on Hams and Turkey Rolls Contaminated with Clostridium perfringens1

“…A second factor to be considered is that all platings were made without a heat shock having been applied to the food sample, other than that induced by the cookery. Woodburn and Kim (11) utilized an additional heat shock in obtaining viable counts for C. perfringens in cooked turkey stuffing. An inspection of their data suggests that the bulk of the viable cells were recovered from cooked samples without additional heat shocking.…”

“…In this instance, the broth surrounding the turkey was at 68 C. (Attempts to isolate C. perfringens from the broth which surrounded the turkey were positive for all trials.) Woodburn and Kim (11) reported an instance of survival of viable cells of a nonheat-resistant strain of C. perfringens after the suspending medium (bread and onion stuffing) had reached a temperature of 73 C. Pirie and Harrigan (8) also recovered viable C. perfringens after heating a meat and gravy mixture at approximately 89.5 C for 3 min.…”

“…Among recent reports concerned with the effect of cookery and holding on foods contaminated with C. perfringens are those of Barnes,Despaul,and Ingram (2), Hall and Angelotti (4), Hobbs (6), Pirie and Harrigan (8), Sylvester and Green (9), and Woodburn and Kim (11). The present paper presents data concerning the effect of cookery on populations of C. perfringens added to ham, turkey rolls, and ground-beef casseroles previous to baking or roasting.…”

Συμπεριφορα Των Σπορων Του Clostridium Perfringens Κατα Τη Θερμικη Επεξεργασια Και Συντηρηση Βραστων Αλλαντικων Και Μετουσιωμενων Τυριων

“…Subsequent refrigeration will only reduce these cell numbers to a certain extent. This is supported by data from Strong and Ripp 289 , and Woodburn and Kim 329 that show approximately 50% reduction of cell numbers in turkey stored at 5°C for 48 h and turkey stuffing held at 5°C for 6 days, respectively. Since 41% of household refrigerators in The Netherlands exceed a temperature of 7°C, including 15% that constantly surpass this temperature 85 , and data from the USA show that 10-21% and 4-13% of cooling devices at home and in the retail chain, respectively, exceed 10°C 83,312 , growth of C. perfringens may even occur during storage of food.…”

“…The majority of food poisoning outbreaks are caused by strains that form heat resistant spores 66 . However, heat-sensitive spores are also able to survive the cooking process and cause food poisoning 152,158,291,329 . Illness occurs after ingestion of approximately 10 8 -10 9 viable cells.…”