Efficacy of low-temperature high hydrostatic pressure processing in inactivating Vibrio parahaemolyticus in culture suspension and oyster homogenate

Culture suspensions of five clinical and five environmental Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains in 2% NaCl solution were subjected to high pressure processing (HPP) under various conditions (200–300 MPa for 5 and 10 min at 1.5–20 °C) to study differences in pressure resistance among the strains. The most pressure-resistant and pressure-sensitive strains were selected to investigate the effects of low temperatures (15, 5 and 1.5 °C) on HPP (200 or 250 MPa for 5 min) to inactivate V. parahaemolyticus in sterile oyster homogenates. Inactivation of V. parahaemolyticus cells in culture suspensions and oyster homogenates was greatly enhanced by lowering the processing temperature from 15 to 5 or 1.5 °C. A treatment of oyster homogenates at 250 MPa for 5 min at 5 °C decreased the populations of V. parahaemolyticus by 6.2 log CFU/g for strains 10290 and 100311Y11 and by > 7.4 log CFU/g for strain 10292. Decreasing the processing temperature of the same treatment to 1.5 °C reduced all the V. parahaemolyticus strains inoculated to oyster homogenates to non-detectable (< 10 CFU/g) levels. Factors including pressure level, processing temperature and time all need to be considered for developing effective HPP for eliminating pathogens from foods. Further studies are needed to validate the efficacy of the HPP (250 MPa for 5 min at 1.5 °C) in inactivating V. parahaemolyticus cells in whole oysters.