Thermal inactivation kinetics of Aeromonas hydrophila in soymilk of varying pH and sugar concentrations

Abstract

Soymilk, the rich creamy liquid extract of soybean, is a popular nutritive alternative to cow's milk. It is consumed widely, especially in developing countries, as a cheap source of protein and calories, as a cheaper substitute to cow milk in solving malnutrition problems due to its nearly balanced content of essential amino acids, has similar physical and chemical attributes to cow milk, is suitable for all ages from infants to the elderly and can be freely consumed by populations who cannot digest milk due to lactose intolerance, allergy to milk protein or vegetarian way of diet (Ikya et al., 2013;Iwe, 2003;Varghese & Pare, 2019). Being a high-moisture, highly nutritious, low-acidity fluid with a pH ranging between 6.0 and 7.0, it is prone to microbial growth and activity.A. hydrophila has increasingly been recognized as an enteric pathogen in the past few years. It is an emerging food borne pathogen that can pose critical threat to human health (Fadel & Ellamine, 2019;Igbinosa et al., 2012;Park et al., 2021) and its contamination leads to economic losses in food industries (Ma et al., 2021).Due to the nature of its normal habitat, A. hydrophila is found in many foods, including ready-to-eat foods and have been isolated from dairy products, meat and poultry, seafood, vegetables and