Acid adaptation and temperature effect on the survival of E. coli O157:H7 in acidic fruit juice and lactic fermented milk product

In this study, two strains of Escherichia coli O157:H7, (ATCC 43889 and ATCC 43895) were acid adapted at pH 5.0 in tryptic soy broth (TSB) for 4 h. Commercial products of mango juice (pH 3.2), asparagus juice (pH 3.6), Yakult—a diluted milk fermented drink (pH 3.6), and low-fat yoghurt (pH 3.9) were inoculated with acid-adapted or nonadapted cells of E. coli O157:H7. Survival of the inoculated E. coli O157:H7 in these commercial food products during storage at 25 or 7 °C was examined. It was found that although survival of the acid-adapted and nonadapted E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 43895 in asparagus juice during storage at 7 °C did not show marked difference, in general, acid adaptation and low temperature enhanced the survival of E. coli O157:H7 in both the commercial fruit juices tested. On the contrary, acid adaptation reduced the survival of both the strains of the test organism in Yakult and low-fat yoghurt stored at 7 °C. Besides, E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 43895 survived longer than ATCC 43889 in all the products examined, regardless of the storage temperature and acid adaptation.