Salmonella strains are the most prevalent etiological agents for food poisonings in Japan since １９９２. Tea is widely consumed in Japan, and catechin and its derivatives in tea show anti-microbial effect. In this study, we compared the inhibitory effects of catechin-containing drinks against the growth of S.Enteritidis. The growth inhibition was more evident in black tea, oolong tea, and green tea, which contain larger amount of catechin with galloy moiety such as epigallocatechin gallate and epicatechin gallate than barley tea. Of the four kinds of tea evaluated, black tea demonstrated the most potential for the growth inhibition of S.Enteritidis. Theaflavin３in black tea probably gave the additional effect in concert with catechin. Barley tea also showed the inhibitory effect against the growth of S.Enteritidis despite the tea contains a trace amount of catechin, suggesting that the other components than catechin contribute to the growth inhibition. The results in this study indicate that consumption of tea reduces the risk of foodborne illness by pathogenic bacteria
