Short Communication Antimicrobial activity of commercial marinades against multiple strains of Salmonella spp. ☆ A. Pathania, S.R. McKee, S.F. Bilgili, M. Singh ⁎ Department of Poultry Science, 201 Poultry Science Building, 260 Lem Morrison Dr., Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, United States abstract article info Article history: Received 16 November 2009 Received in revised form 22 January 2010 Accepted 27 January 2010 Keywords: Salmonella Commercial marinades Antimicrobials Marination of poultry meat is widely done for value addition, enhancing shelf life, and increasing consumer acceptance. This study was conducted to determine in vitro the efficacy of commercially available teriyaki and lemon pepper marinades on the survivability of multiple strains of nalidixic acid (NAL) resistant Salmonella spp. S. Typhimurium and S. Heidelberg resistant to 60 μg of NAL and S. Seftenberg resistant to 35 μg of NAL were individually inoculated into the marinades (ca. 10 8 CFU/ml) and maintained at 4 and 25 °C for up to 32 h. Teriyaki marinade significantly (p b 0.05) reduced the populations of all three strains of Salmonella over the 32 h period as compared to lemon pepper, irrespective of the storage temperature. Following the 32 h storage, irrespective of the storage temperature, surviving populations of S. Heidelberg, Typhimurium, and Senftenberg were reduced (p b 0.05) by 3.55, 4.62 and 2.27 log 10 CFU/ml respectively at 0 h and subsequently were reduced (p b 0.05) below detectable limits after 32 h whereas no significant reductions (p N 0.05) were observed in the lemon pepper marinade. These findings suggest that, in addition to the potential for improving the sensory attributes of poultry products, marination can enhance their safety irrespective of the storage temperature. The findings from this study suggest a promising approach in developing antimicrobial systems for poultry products. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Foodborne illnesses remain a major concern in the developed countries with an estimated 6.5–33 million illnesses and 900 deaths occurring annually from bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi in the United States (Roberts, 2000). Salmonella spp. are Gram negative, heterotrophic, mesophilic bacteria present in warm-blooded animal hosts and is an important human pathogen associated with poultry and poultry products (Bryan and Doyle, 1995). Although most outbreaks cause mild to moderate self limited illness, serious disease resulting in death does occur particularly in elderly and immuno- compromised populations. Salmonella is the most commonly identi- fied bacterial agent causing illnesses such as typhoid fever in humans (Winfield and Groisman, 2003; Marques et al., 2008) and an annual estimate of 800,000 to 4,000,000 of non-typhoidal infections (Voetsch et al., 2004). Meat, milk, poultry, and eggs are primary vehicles that lead to human illnesses due to undercooking or cross contamination and Pang et al. (1995) had reported approximately 1.3 billion annual cases of Salmonella related human gastroenteritis resulting from ingestion of contaminated food products such as undercooked beef, pork, chicken, seafood and eggs. In the year 2006, there were 121 Salmonella outbreaks causing more than 3300 illnesses reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in which the most common outbreak serotypes involved were S. Enteriditis, Typhimur- ium, Newport and Heidelberg (CDC, 2006). According to the Food-Net data, incidence of human infections by S. Heidelberg has increased by 25% from 1996 to 2005, while the overall number of cases of salmonellosis has decreased by 9% (CDC, 2006). This report also identified that of the 5869 isolates of Salmonella serotyped, six accounted for 61% of the infections as follows: Typhimurium (19%), Enteritidis (18%), Newport (10%), Heidelberg (6%), and Javiana (5%). Salmonella serovars are a significant hazard in raw meat and poultry products and processors may have limited control over the presence of this pathogen in raw meat received for processing (Ingham et al., 2004). In 1999, the U.S. Department of Agricultures' Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) established lethality regulations for fully and partially cooked meat and poultry products (USDA-FSIS, 1999). A 6.5-log unit reduction of Salmonella in cooked beef and roast beef and a 7.0-log unit reduction in certain fully and partially cooked poultry products were set as a performance standard for lethality, stabilization, and product handling (Weche et al., 2005). Although foodborne pathogens are subjected to physical, chemical, and nutritional stresses during processing (Yousef and Courtney, 2003), their elimination/inhibition poses a challenge to processors. Although significant advances have been made in developing thermal and non- International Journal of Food Microbiology 139 (2010) 214–217 ☆ Mention of trade names or commercial products in this publication is solely for providing specific information and does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the authors. ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: manpreet@auburn.edu (M. Singh). 0168-1605/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2010.01.039 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Food Microbiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfoodmicro