BEDFORD PARK, ILL. — Raw pet food products have gained widespread popularity amongst pet parents and the pet food industry. But this specific format can pose significant health risks to both pets and their owners with pathogens like E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella. High-pressure processing (HPP) has emerged as a method to inactivate these pathogens and ensure food safety.
HPP has already been shown to be effective in achieving a five-log reduction of Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes. However, E. coli and Listeria are more resistant to HPP compared to Salmonella, and their inactivation by HPP can be inconsistent, especially in chicken-based formulas.
With this in mind, new research published in the Journal of Food Protection has explored the use of lactic acid in combination with HPP to help improve pathogen inactivation in raw and frozen pet food. The research was conducted by Alvin Lee, Nicole Maks-Warren, Viviana Aguilar, Brittany Swicegood, Lindsay Halik and Joshua Warren of the Institute for Food Safety and Health at the Illinois Institute of Technology; Edward O’Neill of EEON Food Consulting, LLC; Jason Meents of Instinct Pet Food; and Susy Tejayadi of TPS Consulting.
“Our previous study demonstrated that HPP had a significant impact in reducing pathogens from raw diet pet foods but pathogen inactivation in chicken-based pet food did not consistently yield a five-log reduction and any residual pathogens may recover post-HPP and proliferate during refrigerated storage,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers examined the use of lactic acid with HPP on a complete-and-balanced, chicken-based raw pet food formula containing chicken meat, organs and bone, fruits, vegetables, vitamins and minerals. The pet food was inoculated with pathogen cocktails and stored for 24 hours before lactic acid at either 0.7% or 1.0% was added. After another 24 to 72 hours, the products then underwent HPP and were stored frozen and monitored for 21 days.
According to the researchers, all the samples containing lactic acid additions achieved a five-log reduction for each pathogen and resulted in more complete inactivation. Additionally, the use of 1.0% lactic acid in addition to HPP of 586MPa for 4 minutes was found to be the most effective on inactivating each pathogen.
Read the full research on how lactic acid can help reduce pathogens here.
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