Escherichia coli O157:H7 and fermented sausages:: A review

Escherichia coli O157:H7 emerged as a foodborne pathogen in 1982 and can cause three major disease syndromes (hemorrhagic colitis, hemolytic uremic syndrome, ann thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura). Outbreaks caused by E. coli O157:H7 have been linked to ground beef; milk, apple cider lettuce, radish and alfalfa sprouts, and water. In 1994, an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infection was linked to dry, fermented pork and beef salami. In response to this first implication of a dry fermented sausage product, the United States Department of Agriculture/Food Safety Inspection Service developed guidelines requiring sausage manufacturers to validate that their processes achieve a five-log reduction of E. coli O157:H7. Various validation studies have shown that E. coli O157:H7 is able to survive in sausages that are fermented and then dried to various moisture-to-protein ratios of 2.3, 1.9, or 1.6:1. Additional thermal processing methods or longer fermentation processes were utilized to achieve 5-log reductions.