Simple quantitative analysis of Escherichia coli K-12 internalized in baby spinach using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy

Bacterial contamination continues to be a serious concern for food safety. Although washing fresh produce helps in reducing pathogen levels, pathogen internalization often limits the effectiveness of washing. When pathogens internalize in leafy vegetables, the method of identification and quantitative measurement would be called into question. This study was aimed to use Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy integrated with an attenuated total reflectance kit for quantification of Escherichia coli K-12 internalized in baby spinach. The bacteria were inoculated into vascular and intracellar tissues of spinach leaves by syringe injection and the distribution of internalized E. coli K-12 cells was confirmed under scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR measurement following the preparation of bacterial suspension from spinach leaves with high speed pulverizing enabled to detect the absorbance peaks in the amide II region between 1590 and 1490 cm−1 as a fingerprint for the microbes. It was found that the estimated concentrations of E. coli K-12 agreed well with the concentrations determined by plate counting with R2 values of 0.98 and 0.97 in peptone water and spinach extracts, respectively. The results demonstrated that FTIR can identify and quantify E. coli K-12 in baby spinach extracts at a limit of detection of approximately 100 CFU/mL in 5 min. The developed method is expected to be suitable for the analysis of pathogenic E. coli strains and other bacterial species in fresh vegetables.