Survivability of Clostridioides difficile spores in fermented pork summer sausage during refrigerated storage

Background and Aim: Clostridioides difficile is a spore-forming pathogen that causes serious enteric disease in humans. Strains have been isolated from food animals and meat, including pork, which suggest a potential for foodbome transmission. Pork summer sausage is a popular fermented meat product, which is consumed cooked or cooked to a lower internal temperature due to acidification of the product. The effect of acidity and cooking on the viability of C. difficile spores in a fermented meat product has not been determined. Therefore, the aim was to study the survivability of C. difficile spores in fermented pork summer sausage. Materials and Methods: Fermented pork sausages were prepared according to a commercial recipe with or without starter culture and C. difficile spores followed by fermentation at 37 degrees C for similar to 12 h under 85% relative humidity until pH 5.0 was reached and further processed as cooked (>57 degrees C) or uncooked (<= 57 degrees C) and stored at 4 degrees C. C. difficile spores in sausages were enumerated at 1 h following inoculation and on days 0, 1, 7, 14, 21, 30, 60, and 90 of storage. Results: It was observed that C. difficile spore viability in control unfermented treatment was significantly different on day 0 from the fermented, fermented cooked, and control unfermented cooked treatments (p<0.05); however, there was no significant difference among the latter three treatment groups throughout 90 days of storage (p>0.05). On day 90 of storage, the unfermented control sausages yielded similar to 4.0 log colony-forming unit (CFU)/g of C. difficile spores compared to similar to 3.5 log CFU/g recovered from fermented samples and the unfermented cooked control samples identifying spore viability in all treatment groups. Conclusion: C. difficile spores were found to survive the acidity and cooking of fermented pork summer sausage and storage at 4 degrees C for 3 months, thereby highlighting the need for effective intervention strategies to reduce the risk of C. difficlle contamination in pork products.

Automated summary

This study aimed to investigate the survivability of C. difficile spores in fermented pork summer sausage. The results showed that C. difficile spores can survive the acidity, cooking, and storage at 4 degrees C for 3 months in the product, highlighting the need for effective intervention strategies to reduce the risk of C. difficile contamination in pork products.