Microbial radio-resistance of Salmonella Typhimurium in egg increases due to repetitive irradiation with electron beam

Ionizing radiation improves food safety. However, foodborne pathogens develop increased resistance in response to sub-lethal stresses such as heat, pH, antibiotics, etc. Therefore, it is hypothesized that foodborne pathogens may develop increased radio-resistance to electron beam (e-beam) radiation. The objective was to determine if D10-value for Salmonella Typhimurium in de-shelled raw egg (egg white and yolk mixed together) increases due to repetitive processing with e-beam at sub-lethal doses. Survivors were enumerated on non-selective (TSA) and selective (XLD) media. Survivors from the highest dose were isolated and used in subsequent e-beam cycle. This process was repeated four times for a total of five e-beam cycles. D10-values for S. Typhimurium enumerated on TSA and XLD following each e-beam cycle were calculated as inverse reciprocal of the slope of survivor curves. D10-values for the ATCC strain were 0.59±0.031 and 0.46±0.022 kGy on TSA and XLD, respectively. However, following the fifth e-beam cycle, the respective D10-values increased (P<0.05) to 0.69±0.026 and 0.61±0.029 kGy, respectively. S. Typhimurium showed a trend (P>0.05) to develop radio-resistance faster on selective media, likely due to facilitated selection of radio-resistant cells within microbial population following each e-beam cycle. For all five e-beam cycles, S. Typhimurium had higher (P<0.05) D10-values on non-selective media, indicating that sub-lethal injury followed by cellular repair and recovery are important for radio-resistance and inactivation of this microorganism. This study demonstrated that e-beam efficiently inactivates S. Typhimurium in raw egg; however, similar to other inactivation techniques and factors affecting microbial growth, S. Typhimurium develops increased radio-resistance if repetitively processed with e-beam at sub-lethal doses.