Thermal Inactivation of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes in Ground Chicken Thigh/Leg Meat and Skin

Thermal Inactivation of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes in Ground Chicken Thigh/Leg Meat and Skin R. Y. Murphy,*,1 T. Osaili, L. K. Duncan, and J. A. Marcy *Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Department of Food Science, Department of Mathematical Sciences, and Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 ABSTRACT Thermal inactivation D and z values of Salmonella and 5.27 C in the skin. For Salmonella or L. monocytogenes, and Listeria monocytogenes were obtained for chicken thigh and leg meat and skin. The D values of Salmonella at 55 to 70 C were 43.33 to 0.07 min in the meat and 43.76 to 0.09 min in the skin. The D values of L. monocytogenes at 55 to 70 C were 38.94 to 0.04 min in the meat and 34.05 to 0.05 min in the skin. The z value of Salmonella was 5.34 C in the meat and 5.56 C in the skin. The z value of L. monocytogenes was 5.08 C in the meat the z value of the meat was not different from that of skin. However, the z value of Salmonella in meat or skin was different from that of L. monocytogenes in meat or skin. The z value of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes in chicken thigh and leg meat was different from that in the skin. The results from this study are useful for predicting process lethality of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes in products that contain chicken thigh and leg meat or skin. (Key words: Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, D and z values, ready-to-eat poultry, thermal inactivation) 2004 Poultry Science 83:1218 1225 INTRODUCTION Ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products can be consumed without further cooking. Therefore, the presence of pathogens in these products could present a food safety threat. Salmonella is a leading cause of gastroenteritis in humans. To verify compliance to the performance standard, the USDA-FSIS (1999) recommends the use of a cocktail or a combination of Salmonella serotypes consisting of the strains that exhibit relatively high heat resistance and that have been previously implicated in foodborne outbreaks. Listeria monocytogenes was first implicated as a foodborne pathogen in the 1980s. The thermotolerance of L. monocytogenes is estimated to be one of the highest among nonsporeformers. Inadequate cooking was cited as a contributing factor in 67% of the Salmonellarelated outbreaks and has also been investigated as a source of listeriosis (Bean and Griffin, 1990; D Sa et al., 2000). Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes are the significant foodborne pathogens present on raw meat products and in the processing environment (Beuchat et al., 1986; Golden et al., 1988; Petran and Zottola, 1989; Angulo and Swerdlow, 1998; Arnold 1998; Jay, 2000; Bailey et al., 2002; Berrang et al., 2002; CDC, 2002a,b; Mikolajczyk and Radkowski, 2002; Rose et al., 2002). In October 2002, a com- pany recalled approximately 27.4 million pounds of RTE turkey and chicken products due to an outbreak of listeriosis that sickened 52 people, killing 7 (Gersema, 2002; USDA-FSIS, 2002). The projected cost relating to L. monocytogenes alone was estimated at $233 million per year in the US (Kanuganti et al., 2002). Thermal pathogen lethality during heat treatment depends on treatment time and temperature. Quantitative information on lethality of pathogens is required for any processing schedule, to show that it meets the lethality performance standard. For a transient heating process in which product temperature changes with time, thermal pathogen lethality can be estimated by calculating process lethality (F) that is described using the time required to cause log 10 decreases in bacterial numbers at a given reference temperature (Tref), i.e., F = 10 (T-Tref)/z dt (Murphy et al., 2001). To determine the process lethality (F) of a pathogen in a heat-treated product, the D (decimal reduction time at a certain heating temperature) and z (temperature rise for one log 10 reduction of D) values of the pathogen in the product should be evaluated. Once the F value from a process was calculated, the predicted log 10 reduction can be obtained by dividing F value by the D value (i.e., F/D) at a reference temperature (Tref). Therefore, D and z values are important in predicting log 10 reduction of pathogens in RTE meat and poultry products in a com- 2004 Poultry Science Association, Inc. Received for publication May 3, 2003. Accepted for publication January 28, 2004. 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: rymurph@uark.edu. Abbreviation Key: CBNA = CNA + 4% horse blood overlay; CNA = colistin and nalidixic acid; LPM = Listeria plating medium; RTE = readyto-eat. 1218

MICROBIAL THERMAL LETHALITY 1219 mercial heat-treatment process where temperature-time data can be obtained, but inoculation tests cannot be performed due to the concern of potential introduction of pathogens into the processing environment. Varieties of value-added poultry products contain skin. Different accounts can be found in the literature regarding how product formulations affect the thermal lethality of pathogens (Kotrola and Conner, 1997; Doyle and Mazotta, 2000). In a previous study on different commercial meat and poultry products, Murphy et al. (2002) found that thermal inactivation D and z values of Salmonella and Listeria innocua were significantly different among several commercially formulated meat and poultry products, including chicken breast meat, chicken patties, chicken tenders, franks, beef patties, and blended beef and turkey patties. No information could be found from the literature on thermal inactivation D and z values of pathogens in chicken thigh/leg meat and skin. It was also unknown how the skin in product formulations could affect pathogen thermal lethality in fully cooked chicken products. The primary goal of this study was to determine the thermal inactivation D and z values of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes in chicken thigh/leg meat and skin. Product MATERIAL AND METHODS Chicken thigh and leg quarters were obtained from the Poultry Processing Plant at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The chicken thigh and leg quarters were from about 7-wk birds aged by chilling for 1 h. The mass of the leg quarters ranged from 139 to 540 g, consisted of approximately 12% (wt/wt) skin, 20% (wt/wt) bone, and 68% (wt/wt) meat. The products were deboned, and the chicken thigh/leg meat was separated from the skin (plus fat). From this point on, the meat and skin portions were processed separately. Crude analysis showed that the chicken thigh/leg meat contained about 70.5% (wt/wt) moisture, 10.3% (wt/wt) fat, and 18.9% (wt/wt) protein, and the skin contained about 41.4% (wt/wt) moisture, 47.4% (wt/wt) fat, and 10.3% (wt/wt) protein. The skin was ground through a 4-mm-diameter plate with a sterile Universal clamp-on meat grinder (model unknown) and then ground in a sterile Cuisinart food processor. 2 The meat was ground in a sterile Cuisinart food processor. The ground meat or skin was divided into 100-g allotments and kept at 20 C. Before each trial the samples were thawed overnight at 4 C. Bacterial Preparation Considering that various serotypes or strains of pathogens may be present concurrently in real products, a cock- 2 Model CFP 5A, Robot-Coupe, Stamford, CT. 3 ATCC43845, American Type Culture Collection, Rockville, MD. 4 Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. 5 Mike Johnson, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR. tail of 6 Salmonella serotypes (S. senftenberg, S. typhimurium, S. heidelberg, S. mission, S. montevideo, and S. california) was used in this study. Salmonella senftenberg was purchased from American Type Culture Collection 3 and the other 5 Salmonella cultures were originally obtained from Dr. Amy Waldroup. 4 Salmonella cultures were prepared to resist to 200 ppm of nalidixic acid sodium salt (Murphy et al., 1999). Salmonella senftenberg was included because of its high heat resistance, which would provide processors with a margin of safety while determining process lethality. Each Salmonella culture was individually maintained. According to Smith et al. (2001) and our preliminary study (unpublished data), Salmonella was more resistant to temperature change (had a higher z value) in stationary phase than in log phase. Therefore, 24-h cultures were used in this study. Each stock culture was prepared according to the method of Murphy et al. (1999) by incubating the culture at 35 C for 24 h. The cocktail culture of Salmonella was prepared with equal volumes of each stock culture just prior to inoculation. Six isolates of L. monocytogenes, 5 including Scott A (4b), TN Scott A, F 4393 4b, F4260 (1/2b), F4263 (1/2a), and LCDC 81 to 861 (4b) were also used in this study. Each isolate was maintained on the slants containing tryptic soy agar plus 0.6% yeast extract. From each slant, a loop of culture was transferred to 10 ml of tryptic soy broth plus 0.6% yeast extract in a test tube, and then incubated for 24 h at 35 C as stock culture. Just before inoculation of meat samples, an equal volume of each stock culture was placed in a sterile flask and mixed. Inoculation Each ground sample was mixed with the cocktail of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes at a ratio of 1 ml of culture per 100 g of meat sample. The inoculation level for Salmonella or L. monocytogenes was about 10 7 cfu/g. Inoculated meat samples were kept at 4 C for 30 min to allow bacterial cells to attach to meat or skin tissues. A preliminary study showed that equilibration of the inoculated meat samples at 4 C for 15 to 20 min was sufficient to give constant initial bacterial counts. Each 10-g allotment of inoculated samples was placed in a 152 mm wide 203 mm long 0.08 mm thick gas/moisture barrier (plastic) bag and sealed under 1 bar vacuum. The sealed samples were rolled flat into a thin layer with a rolling pin. The flattened samples filled all of the space in the bag and had a thickness of less than 1 mm. Heat Treatment The sample bags were placed flat inside a stainless steel wire rack and immediately submerged in a circulated water bath that was maintained at 55, 57.5, 60, 62.5, 65, 67.5, or 70 C. The bags of the samples were pulled at varying time intervals from 2 s to 120 min, depending on treatment temperature. In each trial, the temperature of the samples was monitored via a 0.2-mm diameter

1220 MURPHY ET AL. FIGURE 1. An example plot for obtaining the D values of Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes. (a) log 10 (cfu/g) survivors of Salmonella in chicken thigh and leg meat vs. heating time (min) at 70 C and (b) log 10 (cfu/g) survivors of L. monocytogenes in chicken thigh and leg meat vs. heating time (min) at 62.5 C. thermocouple probe (Type E) that was sealed at the center of a bag, using an uninoculated control that was prepared using the same procedure as above. The come-up time at each heating temperature was immediate. After heat treatments, the samples were immediately placed in an ice water bath to cool. Time-temperature history for cooling was recorded via the same thermocouple probe that was sealed in the bag. The samples were cooled to below 20 C almost immediately. Bacterial Enumeration After the bags were blotted with paper towels and wiped with 75% ethanol, a 25-mm slit was cut aseptically in each bag. Fifty milliliters of sterile 0.1% peptone solution was pipetted into each bag and stomached or 2 min. From this point on, serial dilutions were made in sterile 0.1% peptone solution and spread-plated in duplicate onto tryptic soy agar containing 200 ppm of nalidixic acid sodium salt overlaid with tryptic soy agar for Salmonella or on modified oxford medium (MOX) overlaid with tryptic soy broth + 0.6% yeast extract agar for L. monocytogenes. Inoculated unheated samples and uninoculated heated samples were used as controls at each trial. The plates were incubated at 35 C for 48 to 72 h for Salmonellafor 72 to 96 h for L. monocytogenes. The viable colonies were counted and verified and the plates were returned to the incubator and examined the next day for additional counts. The plates were kept for 5 d before they were discarded. D and Z Value Calculations For chicken thigh/leg meat or skin samples, the survivors, log 10 (colony-forming units per gram), of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes were plotted against heating times at each temperature. At each combination of treatment time and temperature, triplicate trials were performed starting from the growing of the cultures. The D value of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes in chicken thigh/leg meat or skin at each temperature was calculated from the negative inverse slope of the log 10 (colony-forming units per gram) vs. time plot (Murphy et al., 2000). The z value was determined from the negative inverse slope of the log 10 D vs. temperature plot. Data Analysis At each heating temperature, log 10 (N i )ofsalmonella or L. monocytogenes was plotted against heating temperature. Let N i represent the colony counts (in cfu/g) for Salmonella or L. monocytogenes, and t represent heating time (in min). Log 10 (N i ) was the response, sample type (meat or skin) was the explanatory variable, and t was the covariate. The data were fitted to the following linear regression model: log 10 (N i )=a+bδ i1 +c(t)+d(t)δ i2 [1] where i = 1 or 2 corresponds to meat or skin, respectively, and δ ij =1ifi=jor0ifi j. Log 10 (D i )ofsalmonella or L. monocytogenes was plotted against heating temperature. Let D i represent the decimal reduction time (in min) for Salmonella or L. monocytogenes, and T represent the temperature (in C). Log 10 (D i ) was the response, sample type was the explanatory variable, and T was the covariate. The data were fitted to the following linear regression model: log 10 (D i )=a+bδ i1 +c(t)+d(t)δ i2 [2] where i = 1 or 2 corresponds to chicken meat or skin, respectively, and δ ij =1ifi=jor0ifi j. Using SAS software (SAS Institute, 1999), ANOVA was conducted to determine (1) whether at each heating temperature, the D value of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes was different between chicken thigh/leg meat or skin, (2) whether the z value of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes was significantly different between chicken thigh/leg meat and skin, and (3) whether the z value of Salmonella in the meat or skin was different from that of L. monocytogenes in the meat or skin. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION At each heating temperature, linear regressions were conducted for log 10 (cfu/g) survivors of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes vs. heating time. The R 2 for the linear regressions of log 10 (cfu/g) vs. heating temperature was greater than 0.9 in this study. Figure 1 shows the linear

MICROBIAL THERMAL LETHALITY 1221 TABLE 1. D 1 values of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes in chicken thigh/leg meat or skin at a temperature of 55 to 70 C Salmonella L. monocytogenes Temperature ( C) Type D (min) SD (min) D (min) SD (min) 55 Meat 43.76 5.23 38.94 10.45 Skin 43.33 6.35 34.05 3.22 57.5 Meat 13.66 1.12 9.67 0.68 Skin 14.09 0.89 10.19 1.22 60 Meat 5.72 0.69 2.04 0.79 Skin 7.31 0.14 3.95 0.27 62.5 Meat 1.62 0.09 1.01 0.21 Skin 2.21 0.18 1.37 0.36 65 Meat 0.55 0.11 0.30 0.02 Skin 0.79 0.08 0.41 0.06 67.5 Meat 0.19 0.01 0.10 0.05 Skin 0.23 0.01 0.13 0.03 70 Meat 0.07 0.004 0.04 0.02 Skin 0.09 0.01 0.05 0.01 1 Values were obtained from 3 replicates. regressions of log 10 (cfu/g) vs. heating time for Salmonella in chicken thigh/leg meat at 70 C or L. monocytogenes in chicken thigh/leg meat at 62.5 C. Similar plots were obtained for Salmonella or L. monocytogenes at other heating temperatures including 55, 57.5, 60, 65, and 67.5 C (data not shown). In this study, no obvious shoulders or tails were observed in the log 10 (cfu/g) vs. heating time plots at a heating temperature of 55 to 70 C. The survivors of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes linearly decreased with heating time. The D values of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes in the meat or skin were calculated from the inverse negative slopes of the regressions at each temperature (Table 1). The D values of Salmonella were 43.8 to 0.09 min at 55 to 70 C and the D values of L. monocytogenes were 38.9 to 0.04 min at 55 to 70 C. In a study by Juneja et al. (2001), they found that the D value of Salmonella at 58 to 65 C was between 7.08 and 0.59 min in chicken broth (3% fat). In a previous study by Murphy et al. (2002), they found that the D values of Salmonella in commercially formulated chicken patties (5% fat) and tenders (21% fat) were in a range of 26.97 to 0.32 min at 55 to 70 C. Considering the differences among the substrates, the D values of Salmonella from this study were in general agreement with the studies by Juneja et al. (2001) and Murphy et al. (2002). Little information was found on thermal inactivation of L. monocytogenes in chicken products. Murphy et al. (2002) evaluated the thermal inactivation of L. innocua in commercially formulated chicken patties (5% fat) and tenders (21% fat) and obtained the D values of 191.94 to 0.29 min at 55 to 70 C. The D values of L. monocytogenes in chicken thigh/leg meat and skin from this study were lower than the D values of L. innocua in the commercially formulated chicken patties and tenders. A higher D value indicates a higher heat resistance of bacteria at the temperature being evaluated. Because the strains (L. monocytogenes vs. L. innocua) and the substrates (chicken thigh/ leg meat or skin vs. commercially formulated chicken patties or tenders) were different in the above studies, the D values for a specific pathogen in the actual product should be used when predicting thermal lethality in processing. The ANOVA was conducted to determine whether the D value of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes was significantly different between chicken thigh/leg meat and skin at each heating temperature. The degree of freedom was 71 to 121 among the tests being conducted for Salmonella and L. monocytogenes. Figure 2 shows the residual plots for Salmonella at 70 C and L. monocytogenes at 62.5 C. Similar plots were obtained for Salmonella or L. monocytogenes at other heating temperatures including 55, 57.5, 60, 65, and 67.5 C (data not shown). From this study, the D values of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes were significantly different between chicken thigh/leg meat and skin at a temperature of 60 to 70 C (Table 2). Differences on heat resistance of bacteria between different substrates were reported in previous studies (Ahmed et al., 1995; Murphy et al., 2000; Juneja et al., 2001; Muriana et al., 2002; Murphy et al., 2002). No reports were found on the thermal inactivation D values of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes in chicken thigh/leg meat or skin. Since the skin contained mostly fat (47.4%), the results from this study were compared with previous literature on the effect of fat content. Juneja et al. (2001) studied the heat resistance of 35 Salmonella strains at 58 or 60 C using different substrates including commercially canned chicken broth (3% fat), ground beef (12.45% fat), ground pork (6.95% fat), ground chicken (8.45% fat), and ground turkey (8.85% fat). They found that the D values in meat (8.65 to 6.68 min at 58 C or 4.82 to 6.65 min at 60 C) were higher than those in chicken broth (2.98 to 1.85 min at 58 C or 1.30 to 0.75 min at 60 C). In a previous study, Fain et al. (1991) obtained the D values of L. monocytogenes that was enumerated on Columbia CNA (colistin and nalidixic acid) agar base containing 1% sodium pyruvate with a CNA + 4% horse blood overlay (CBNA) or on Listeria plating medium (LPM). Different results were obtained on the D values

1222 MURPHY ET AL. FIGURE 2. An example residual plot for obtaining the D values of Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes in chicken thigh/leg meat or skin. (a) Salmonella at 70 C and (b) L. monocytogenes at 62.5 C. of L. monocytogenes in lean (2.0% fat) or fatty (30.5% fat) ground beef at different testing temperatures (Fain et al. 1991). These authors reported that at 51.7 C, the D value of L. monocytogenes was higher in lean ground beef (81.3 min on CBNA or 56.1 min on LPM) than in fatty ground beef (71.1 min on CBNA or 34.5 min on LPM). However, the D value of L. monocytogenes at 57.2 C was lower in lean ground beef (2.6 min on CBNA or 2.4 min on LPM) than in fatty ground beef (5.8 min on CBNA or 4.6 min on LPM). In other reports, fat content also affected L. monocytogenes inactivation during thermal processing of vacuumpackaged pasteurized salmon and cod fillets (Emarek and Huss, 1993). Salmons with a high fat content (11 to 17%, wt/wt) had D values 1 to 4 times higher than cod fillets with a low fat content (0.6 to 0.8%, wt/wt), suggesting that fat had some protective role during thermal processing (Emarek and Huss, 1993). Senhaji (1977) suggested that an increased bacterial resistance to heat in food products that contained higher fat content might relate to lower heat conductivities or reduced water activity in fat portion. In a review paper, Doyle and Mazzotta (2000) observed that some food additives such as bacteriocin, EDTA, polyphosphate, hydrogen peroxide, and the lactoperoxidase system might interact with fat or protein and be less available to interact with bacterial cells. Varying results were also reported on the effect of fat content on the D

MICROBIAL THERMAL LETHALITY 1223 FIGURE 3. Log 10 (D, min) of Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes vs. heating temperature ( C) at 55 to 70 C. (a) Salmonella and (b) L. monocytogenes. values of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in meat and poultry products. In a study by Ahmed et al. (1995), they found that higher fat content resulted in higher D values of E. coli O157:H7 in raw poultry and meat products. In a different study, Kotrola and Conner (1997) found that adding 3 to 11% of fat to turkey products did not affect the D values of E. coli O157:H7 at a temperature of 52 to 60 C. It is difficult to compare the results from this study with previous studies because of the differences in bacterial type, meat species, muscle type, formulations, and other environmental factors. We conducted linear regressions of log 10 (D, min) vs. heating temperatures to obtain z values of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes in this study for chicken thigh and leg meat or skin. The z value of Salmonella was 5.34 C for the meat and 5.56 C for the skin and the z value of L. monocytogenes was 5.08 C for the meat and 5.27 C for the skin (Figure 3). The analytical results in Table 3 show that the z values are a function of heating temperature (P < 0.0001) and that the sample types (meat or skin) interact with the pathogen types (Salmonella or L. monocytogenes). The results from paired comparison indicated that the z value of Salmonella in the meat or skin, respectively, was different from the z value of L. monocytogenes in the meat (P = 0.0109) or skin (P < 0.001) at a α level of 0.05. The z value of Salmonella or L. monocytogenes in the meat is different from that in the skin (P = 0.0115 for Salmonella and P < 0.001 for L. monocytogenes). The z values of Salmonella in this study were about 15% lower than those in ground chicken breast meat (6.53 C) obtained in a previous study by Murphy et al. (2000). The z values of Salmonella from this study were about 37% lower than that of commercially formulated chicken patties (7.60 C) and tenders (7.61 C) reported by Murphy et al. (2002). A higher z value correlates to a slower temperature response to the log 10 D increase. In other words, a higher z value means that a greater temperature rise is needed to respond to a 90% increase in the decimal reduction time (D value). Therefore, a higher z value indicates that the pathogen is more tolerant to the changes in temperature. Comparing the results from this study with previous reports, the temperature rise that is needed for increasing decimal reduction time of Salmonella is greater in commercially formulated chicken patties and tenders than in ground chicken thigh/leg meat or skin. This result indicates that it might be inappropriate to determine z values under one set of food formulation variables and apply to another while calculating process lethality (F). Veeramuthu et al. (1998) tested S. senftenberg on ground turkey thigh meat and obtained D values of 227.18 min at 55 C, 13.55 min at 60 C, and 3.08 min at 65 C. Although the D values from this study were different from those of turkey thigh meat reported by Veeramuthu et al. (1998), the z value (5.34 C) of Salmonella (containing senftenberg) in chicken thigh/leg meat from this study was in agreement with the z value (5.4 C) of S. senftenberg in ground turkey thigh meat obtained by Veeramuthu et al. (1998). Fain et al. (1991) reported that the z value of L. monocytogenes in lean ground beef was 5.2 C on CBNA or 5.4 C on LPM and in fatty ground beef was 6.3 C on CBNA or 7.3 C on LPM. A previous study reported the z value of L. innocua in various commercially formulated meat and poultry products, including chicken patties, chicken tenders, franks, beef patties, and blended beef/ TABLE 2. Analytical results from the paired comparisons for the D values of Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes between chicken thigh and leg meat and skin at 55 to 70 C Temperature Salmonella 1 L. monocytogenes ( C) SS F P > F SS F P > F 55 6.7747 20.50 <0.0001 0.3067 3.06 0.0839 57.5 0.0240 0.11 0.7393 0.1416 0.89 0.3486 60 2.1622 5.16 0.0251 84.1168 60.17 <0.0001 62.5 3.8402 9.49 0.0027 9.4522 10.40 0.0017 65 3.3411 12.84 0.0005 9.2836 9.27 0.0030 67.5 1.4708 7.41 0.0076 6.3939 5.35 0.0226 70 3.8661 11.97 0.0008 8.9396 12.59 0.0006 1 SS = sums of squares.

1224 MURPHY ET AL. TABLE 3. Analytical results for testing the effect on the z value of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes in chicken thigh and leg meat or skin at a α level of 0.05 Type III sum Significance at Source of squares F P > F α = 0.05 Sample type (meat or skin) 0.0003 0.03 0.8544 No Temperature (55 to 70 C) 23.4451 2,772.75 <0.0001 Yes Temperature sample type 0.0001 0.02 0.8989 No Pathogen (Salmonella or L. monocytogenes) 0.0114 1.35 0.2591 No Sample type pathogen 0.0645 7.62 0.0117 Yes Temperature pathogen 0.0218 2.58 0.1232 No turkey patties, ranging from 4.86 to 8.67 C (Murphy et al., 2002). The current performance standards require processors to validate the efficacy of their processes to reduce microbial contamination. The application of proper D and z values is necessary while evaluating thermal processes of meat products for food safety. The results from this study will be useful in predicting process lethality of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes in the products that contain chicken thigh/leg meat and skin. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was supported by a USDA-CSREES Food Safety Initiative Competitive grant 2001. The authors thank R. E. Wolfe for providing the products. REFERENCES Ahmed, N. M., D. E. Conner, and D. L. Huffman. 1995. Heatresistance of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in meat and poultry as affected by product composition. J. Food Sci. 60:606 610. Angulo, F. J., and D. K. L. Swerdlow. 1998. Salmonella enteritidis infections in the United States. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 213:1729 1731. Arnold, J. W. 1998. Development of bacterial biofilms during poultry processing. Poult. Avian Biol. Rev. 9:1 9. Bailey, J. S., N. A. Cox, S. E. Craven, and D. E. Cosby. 2002. Serotype tracking of Salmonella through integrated broiler chicken operations. J. Food Prot. 65:742 745. Bean, N. H., and P. M. Griffin. 1990. 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