Synergistic Action of Mild Heat and Essential Oil Treatments on Culturability and Viability of <i>Escherichia coli</i> ATCC 25922 Tested In Vitro and in Fruit Juice
Luciana Di Gregorio,
Alex Tchuenchieu,
Valeria Poscente,
Stefania Arioli,
Antonella Del Fiore,
Manuela Costanzo,
Debora Giorgi,
Sergio Lucretti,
Annamaria Bevivino
Affiliations
Luciana Di Gregorio
Department for Sustainability, Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Casaccia Research Center, 00123 Rome, Italy
Alex Tchuenchieu
Centre for Food and Nutrition Research, Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies (IMPM), Yaoundé P.O. Box 6163, Cameroon
Valeria Poscente
Department for Sustainability, Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Casaccia Research Center, 00123 Rome, Italy
Stefania Arioli
Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy
Antonella Del Fiore
Department for Sustainability, Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Casaccia Research Center, 00123 Rome, Italy
Manuela Costanzo
Department for Sustainability, Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Casaccia Research Center, 00123 Rome, Italy
Debora Giorgi
Department for Sustainability, Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Casaccia Research Center, 00123 Rome, Italy
Sergio Lucretti
Department for Sustainability, Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Casaccia Research Center, 00123 Rome, Italy
Annamaria Bevivino
Department for Sustainability, Biotechnologies and Agroindustry Division, ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Casaccia Research Center, 00123 Rome, Italy
The strengthening effect of a mild temperature treatment on the antimicrobial efficacy of essential oils has been widely reported, often leading to an underestimation or a misinterpretation of the product’s microbial status. In the present study, both a traditional culture-based method and Flow Cytometry (FCM) were applied to monitor the individual or combined effect of Origanum vulgare essential oil (OEO) and mild heat treatment on the culturability and viability of Escherichia coli in a conventional culture medium and in a fruit juice challenge test. The results obtained in the culture medium showed bacterial inactivation with an increasing treatment temperature (55 °C, 60 °C, 65 °C), highlighting an overestimation of the dead population using the culture-based method; in fact, when the FCM method was applied, the prevalence of injured bacterial cells in a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state was observed. When commercial fruit juice with a pH of 3.8 and buffered at pH 7.0 was inoculated with E. coli ATCC 25922, a bactericidal action of OEO and a higher efficiency of the mild heat at 65 °C for 5′ combined with OEO were found. Overall, the combination of mild heat and OEO treatment represents a promising antimicrobial alternative to improve the safety of fruit juice.
