Thermal death of bacterial pathogens in linguiça smoking

Linguiça, a smoked sausage originally from Portugal, is often made in small quantities in California, without inspection. Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica serotype Newport, and Yersinia enterocolitica were added individually to batter representing California linguiça. Batter (≤1 mm thick), heated at 50, 55, and 60 °C, showed decimal reduction times ranging from >10 min for most trials at 50 °C to <2 min at 60 °C. Pork casings, stuffed with the batters to a diameter ≤3 cm, length 10 cm, and weight 75-80 g, were hot smoked; sausage centers were at ≥60 °C for ≥90 min. Contaminant levels in the batters (three experiments/pathogen) ranged from 2.3 × 106 to 3.0 × 1010 CFU/g in various runs; reductions were ≥5 log10 in all cases. These experiments indicate a reasonable margin of safety for products processed in this way.