Modeling the effect of simultaneous use of allyl isothiocyanate and cinnamaldehyde on high hydrostatic pressure inactivation of Uropathogenic and Shiga toxin‐producing Escherichia coli in ground chicken

BACKGROUND A combination of high‐pressure processing (HPP) and antimicrobials is a well‐known approach for enhancing the microbiological safety of foods. However, few studies have applied multiple antimicrobials simultaneously with HPP, which could be an additional hurdle for microbial inactivation. The present study applied a full factorial design to investigate the impact of HPP (225–325 MPa; 10–20 min), allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) (0.3–0.9 g kg–1) and trans‐cinnamaldehyde (tCinn) (1.0–2.0 g kg–1) on the inactivation of Shiga toxin‐producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 and uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) in ground chicken meat. RESULTS The regulatory requirement of 5‐log reduction was achieved at 305 MPa, 18 min, 0.8 g kg–1 AITC and 1.7 g kg–1 tCinn for STEC O157:H7 and at 293 MPa, 16 min, 0.6 g kg–1 AITC and 1.6 g kg–1 tCinn for UPEC, as specified by response surface analysis and verified via experiments. The surviving population was eliminated by post‐treatment storage of 9 days at 10 °C. The developed linear regression models showed r2 > 0.9 for the E. coli inactivation. The developed dimensionless non‐linear regression models covered a factorial range slightly wider than the original experimental limit, with probability Pr > F (