Abstract

As part of a trend toward healthy convenience foods, ready-to-eat (RTE) mixed-ingredient salads have become popular products among consumers. A mixed-ingredient salad contains combinations of raw (e.g. leafy vegetables and tomatoes) and processed (e.g. chicken, salmon, ham, pasta and couscous) ingredients. Contamination of leafy vegetables can occur during any step in the production chain and, since there is no step that kills pathogens, a completely safe final product can never be guaranteed. Meat ingredients, for example poultry meat and ham, are generally heat-treated before preparation, but may be contaminated after this treatment, e.g. when diced or sliced. When several ingredients are mixed together, cross-contamination may occur. Preparation of mixed-ingredient salads requires human handling, which presents an additional risk of bacterial contamination. With high-protein ingredients, e.g. cooked meat, the mixed-ingredient salad represents an excellent substrate for bacterial growth. This article reviews current knowledge regarding human bacterial pathogen prevalence in mixed-ingredient salads and the potential for pathogen growth in this product during storage.

Keywords

Deli salad; Listeria monocytogenes; pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica; Salmonella enterica; shiga toxin-producing Escherichia; colitemperature abuse

Published in

Infection Ecology & Epidemiology
2017, Volume: 7, number: 1, article number: 1407216

SLU Authors

• Söderqvist, Karin

  • Department of Animal Biosciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Pathobiology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20008686.2017.1407216

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/120324