Tag Archives: Crackers

From the Salmonella-in-low-moisture-foods file: survival for 180+ days in cookie and cracker sandwiches

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In 2009 when PCA was distributing Salmonella-contaminated peanut paste products to lots of manufacturers, many were asking questions about how the pathogen survived in the low-moisture environment and whether the outbreak was an indicator that the snack food industry was facing a larger issue. Since then there have been numerous low-moisture food outbreaks (here’s a nice review from Sofia Santillana Farakos and Joe Franks).

Friends of barfblog Larry Beuchat (right, exactly as shown) and Scott Burnett did some work on peanut butter and Salmonella and showed that the pathogen could survive for a long, long time, Larry-Beuchat-28622-105-230x154‘Post-process contamination of peanut butter and spreads with Salmonella may to result in survival in these products for the duration of their shelf life at 5 degrees C and possibly 21 degrees C, depending on the formulation.’

Larry has published another great paper on Salmonella in low moisture foods, Survival of Salmonella in Cookie and Cracker Sandwiches Containing Inoculated, Low-Water Activity Fillings in JFP. From the abstract, ‘The ability of Salmonella to survive for at least 182 days in fillings of cookie and cracker sandwiches demonstrates a need to assure that filling ingredients do not contain the pathogen and that contamination does not occur during manufacture.’

Yep

Or in his own words,

“There have been an increased number of outbreaks of diseases associated with consumption of contaminated dry foods. We wouldn’t expect salmonella to grow in foods that have a very dry environment,” said Beuchat, who works with the Center for Food Safety on the UGA campus in Griffin.

Focusing on cookie and cracker sandwiches, the researchers put the salmonella into four types of fillings found in cookies or crackers and placed them into storage. The researchers used cheese and peanut butter fillings for the cracker sandwiches and chocolate and vanilla fillings for the cookie sandwiches.

These “are the kind that we find in grocery stores or vending machines,” Beuchat said.

“The salmonella didn’t survive as well in the cracker sandwiches as it did in the cookie sandwiches,” Beuchat said.

In some cases, the pathogen was able to survive for at least to six months in the sandwiches.“That was not expected,” he said.

I will survive: Salmonella in filled cracker snack thingies

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A study was done to determine the rate of inactivation of Salmonella in cookie and cracker snack sandwiches.

salm.pcrackerbutter.eanut.Two cookie bases (chocolate and vanilla) and cheese crackers, along with high-sugar chocolate and peanut butter–based crème cookie fillings and peanut butter– and cheese-based cracker fillings, were obtained from commercial sources.

Fillings and sandwiches containing fillings that had been dry- or wet-inoculated with Salmonella were stored at 25°C for 1, 6, 21, 35, 70, 112, and 182 days (6 months). At initial populations of 3.4 and 3.6 log CFU/g of cookie sandwiches containing chocolate crème and peanut butter crème fillings, respectively, Salmonella survived for at least 182 days; initially at 0.36 log CFU/g, the pathogen survived for at least 35 and 70 days.

Initially at 2.9 and 3.4 log CFU/g of cracker sandwiches containing peanut butter– and cheese-based fillings, respectively, Salmonella survived for at least 182 and 112 days; initially at 0.53 log CFU/g, the pathogen survived for at least 6 and 35 days. Inactivation of Salmonella was more rapid in wet-inoculated peanut butter crème cookie filling than in dry-inoculated filling but was less affected by type of inoculum in peanut butter–based cracker filling. Chocolate cookie base (water activity [aw] 0.39) and chocolate crème filling (aw 0.30) components of sandwiches equilibrated to aw 0.38 within 15 days at 25°C; vanilla cookie base (aw 0.21) and peanut butter–based crème filling (aw 0.27) equilibrated to aw 0.24 between 50 and 80 days. Cheese cracker (aw 0.14) and peanut butter–based filling (aw 0.31) or cheese-based filling (aw 0.33) components of sandwiches equilibrated to aw 0.33 in 80 days.

The ability of Salmonella to survive for at least 182 days in fillings of cookie and cracker sandwiches demonstrates a need to assure that filling ingredients do not contain the pathogen and that contamination does not occur during manufacture. 

Survival of Salmonella in cookie and cracker sandwiches containing inoculated, low–water activity fillings

Journal of Food Protection®, Number 10, October 2015, pp. 1776-1924, pp. 1828-1834(7)

Beuchat, Larry R.; Mann, David A.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2015/00000078/00000010/art00007

Kellogg’s sells poop; asks taxpayers to wipe up

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Kellogg CEO David Mackay is planning to grunt out a giant turd in Washington tomorrow.

To see how his assertions would be, uh, swallowed, Mackay’s comments were leaked to an uncritical press this afternoon, just like in the financial meltdown. Both AP and Reuters proclaimed that Kellogg’s “is urging lawmakers to overhaul the nation’s food safety system.”

Mackay (right, exactly as shown) wants food safety placed under a new leader in the Health and Human Services department. He also called for new requirements that all food companies have written safety plans, annual federal inspections of facilities that make high-risk foods, and other reforms.

Mackay whined that Kellogg’s had to recall more than 7 million cases of crackers and cookies, at a cost of $65 million to $70 million, and that "Audit findings reported no concerns that the facility may have had any pathogen-related issues or any potential contamination.”

Kellogg’s is a multi-billion dollar company asking for a government handout to do what Kellogg’s should be doing – selling a safe product. Kellogg’s helped create the paper albatross that is third-party audits instead of having its own people at plants that supply product which Kellogg’s resells at a substantial profit. And now this crapmeister is going to tell Washington how to strengthen food safety when he can’t keep shit out of his own company’s peanut cracker thingies. Must be a day of dicks.