Survival and Growth of Foodborne Pathogens on Commercial Dishsponges/cloths and Inhibitory Effects of Sanitizers

Abstract

This study was investigated the survival and growth of pathogens on commercial dish sponges and cloths when contaminated with organic materials and the effects of chemical sanitizers and organic acids on inhibiting pathogens contaminating the dish sponges and cloths. When pathogens were inoculated with TSB, none of the four pathogens grew in the cellulose sponge until 12 h of storage; however levels of pathogens on the other samples were significantly increased after 24 h of storage. When chemical sanitizers and organic acids were added to the dish sponges and cloths, treatments with hydrogen peroxidebased sanitizer, lactic and propionic acids were the most effective at reducing levels of E. coli O157:H7 and S. aureus, whereas treatment with a chlorine sanitizer did not significantly reduce pathogen levels.

Co-occurrence of free-living protozoa and foodborne pathogens on dishcloths: Implications for food safety

“…Published data, specifically about foodborne bacterial pathogens are also scarce, and mainly relate to spiking experiments (Bae et al, 2012;Diab-Elschahawi et al, 2010;Lee, 2010) and investigations into the occurrence of Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli and S. aureus in used dishcloths (Carrasco et al, 2008;Gorman et al, 2002;Hilton and Austin, 2000;Scott et al, 2008). Dishcloths examined in the present study were heavily contaminated.…”

“…Washing hands, rinsing vegetables and fruits, and the fact that E. coli can survive desiccation for more than 24 h (Bale et al, 1993;Mattick et al, 2003) can explain its frequent occurrence in kitchen environments and more specific in used dishcloths. Lee (2010) and Bae et al (2012) showed that after inoculation of cultured cells on commercial available dishcloths E. coli grew very well at room temperature.…”