Cut Salmonella by 90% in minced meats

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Salmonella causes one million foodborne illnesses in the United States every year, with 19,000 hospitalisations and 380 deaths. So anything that reduces this burden on public health is a bonus. Now researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno are claiming their technology can reduce the Salmonella load in minced meats by 90%.

The team, led by Assistant Professor Amilton de Mello from the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources, is using bacteriophages to achieve the Salmonella reduction.

Bacteriophages are natural bacteria predators that can eliminate bacteria without any other consequences for the product. Bacteriophages from the Myoviridae family are lytic, rather than temperate, and so can function as a therapy for bacterial diseases in humans and other animals.

“We were able to reduce Salmonella by as much as 90% in ground poultry, ground pork and ground beef,” de Mello reported. “We’re excited to be able to show such good results; food safety is an important part of our work and Salmonella is one of the most prevalent bacteria in the nation’s food supply.”

De Mello’s research treated meat products infected with four types of Salmonella by applying Myoviridae bacteriophages during mixing. Bacteriophages are commonly found in our environment. They are viruses that can only harm specific bacterial cells and are harmless to humans, animals and plants.

In the experiments, the Salmonella bacteria was inoculated on refrigerated meat and poultry trim, then the treatment was applied to the meat before grinding. The bacteriophages invaded the cells of the bacteria and destroyed them.

“On the final ground meat products, there was a 10-fold decrease of Salmonella,” de Mello said. “The results are very encouraging and we’re hoping this can be adopted by the meat industry to increase food safety.”