International Specialty Supply
Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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International Specialty Supply Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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820 East 20th Street Cookeville, TN 38501 USA 931 526 1106
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Wrinkled
Alfalfa Seeds Harbor More Aerobic Bacteria and Are More Difficult To Sanitize
than Smooth Seeds Journal
of Food Protection: Vol. 64, No. 9, pp. 1292–1298. Amy
O. Charkowski, Chester Z. Sarreal, and Robert E. Mandrell Abstract—At least 14 separate outbreaks of food poisoning
attributed to either Salmonella enterica or Escherichia coli
O157:H7 have been traced to sprouts in the past decade. Seeds contaminated with
human pathogens caused most of these outbreaks, thus many sprout growers are now
treating alfalfa seeds with the sanitizing agent, calcium hypochlorite (Ca[OCl]2),
prior to sprouting. The efficacy of alfalfa seed sanitation varies between seed
lots and between seeds within each lot. Alfalfa seeds from different seed lots
were sorted by type in an effort to determine if certain seed types carry more
aerobic bacteria than other seed types. Seeds with a wrinkled type,
characteristic of lygus bug damage, had significantly higher levels of
culturable aerobic bacteria and were more difficult to sanitize than smooth,
healthy seeds. After sanitation, wrinkled alfalfa seeds that had been inoculated
with S. enterica ser. Newport carried significantly higher levels of Salmonella
Newport than smooth seeds. If S. enterica is present on wrinkled seeds in
naturally contaminated seed lots, it may be difficult to chemically sanitize the
seed lot. Removal of the wrinkled alfalfa seeds from the seed lots, perhaps by
adapting color sorting equipment similar to that used to sort rice grains and
other seeds, should reduce the level of aerobic bacteria in seed lots and may
result in lower levels of human pathogens on contaminated alfalfa seeds. |