Modeling the inactivation of Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella enteritidis on poultry products exposed to pulsed UV-light

Inactivation of Salmonella Typhimurium on unpackaged and vacuum-packaged chicken breast, Listeria monocytogenes on unpackaged and vacuum-packaged chicken frankfurters, and Salmonella Enteritidis on egg shells via pulsed UV-light were explained by log-linear and Weibull models using inactivation data from previous studies. This study demonstrated that the survival curves of S. Typhimurium and L. monocytogenes were non-linear exhibiting concavity, and the Weibull model was more successful than the log-linear model in estimating the inactivation for all poultry products evaluated, except for S. Enteritidis on shell-eggs, for which the survival curve was sigmoidal rather than concave, and the use of the Weibull model resulted in slightly better fit than the log-linear model. The goodness-of-fit of the Weibull model parameters produced RMSEs of 0.06-0.82, % RMSEs of 3.1-21.2, determination coefficients of 0.75-0.99, and slopes of 0.84-0.95. Overall, this study suggests that the survival curves of pathogens on poultry products exposed to pulsed UV-light are non-linear, and the Weibull model can generally be a useful tool to describe the inactivation patterns for pathogenic microorganisms affiliated with poultry products.