Survival of foodborne pathogens in natural cracked olive brines

This work reports the survival (challenge tests) of foodborne pathogen species (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella enterica) in Aloreña de Málaga table olive brines. The inhibitions were fit using a log-linear model with tail implemented in GInaFIT excel software. The olive brine had a considerable inhibitory effect on the pathogens. The residual (final) populations (Fp) after 24 h was below detection limit (<1.30 log cfu/mL) for all species assayed. The maximum death rate (k) was 9.98, 51.37, 38.35 and 53.01 h, while the time for 4 log reductions (4D) was 0.96, 0.36, 0.36 and 0.24 h for E. coli, S. aureus, L. monocytogenes and S. enterica, respectively. Brine dilutions increased Fp and 4Dr, while decreased k. A cluster analysis showed that E. coli had an overall quite different behaviour being the most resistant species, but the others bacteria behaved similarly, especially S. aureus and S. enterica. Partial Least Squares regression showed that the most influential phenols on microbial survival were EDA (dialdehydic form of decarboxymethyl elenolic acid), HyEDA (EDA linked to hydroxytyrosol), hydroxytyrosol 4-glucoside, tyrosol, and oleoside 11-methyl ester. Results confirm the adverse habitats of table olives for foodborne pathogenic microorganisms.The research leading to these results has received funding from the Junta de Andalucía through PrediAlo Project (AGR7755: www.predialo.science.com.es) and FEDER European funds. Thanks to Copusan S.C.A (Alozaina, Málaga, Spain) for supplying the fruits and facilities for the development of experiments. FNAL wishes to thank the Spanish Government and CSIC for his Ramón y Cajal postdoctoral research contract, while VRG thanks the AgriFood Campus of International Excellence (ceiA3), Bank of Santander, Spanish Government and ‘Aloreña de Málaga’ Olive Manufacturing Association, for her pre-doctoral fellowship (training program of Ph.D. in companies). Authors also express their gratitude to F. Rodríguez-Gómez, M. Brenes, and C. Romero from Instituto de la Grasa (CSIC, Seville) for their invaluable help during HPLC analyses.Peer Reviewe