Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:At Texas A&M, two differing presentations over findings to date were disseminated to members of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, as well as across the university (College Station, TX) by the project-supporting student B.E. Ajayi (Animal Science). These presentations allowed the student to gain experience at presenting research data on the topic of the research to agriculture/food-focused and non-focused campus members. These presentations contacted primarily sausage consumers as stakeholders and other scientific researchers in the biological, agricultural, and engineering sciences. In 2023, concurrent with the USDA-NIFA's Investigators' Annual meeting in Toronto, Canada, Co-PI T. Bergholz presented the initial planned project to other attendees, alerting other USDA-funded food safety and defense-contracting researchers to the team's planned work. Dr. Bergholz presented a collaboratively developed project poster and answered questions of USDA and others related to intended research. This presentation contacted USDA-NIFA employees as well as other food safety professionals in government and academia primarily. This relayed the core objectives of the research, the team's logic model for approaching the researchable question(s), and the approach. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Co-PDs Taylor and Chen met at the 3rd Annual Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture research meeting. Held on the campus of Texas A&M University in April 2024, the third annual Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture conference brought researchers from across the U.S. to Texas A&M to discuss current applications, opportunities, limitations and concerns of AI and machine learning in agricultural production and post-harvest systems. Drs. Chen and Taylor used the meeting as an opportunity to meet with graduate student working on the project, identify possible collaborators to leverage the project into additional research options, and identify next generation grant opportunities for continuing research. Additionally, Drs.Taylor and Chen met with possible research collaborators independently to continue the lines of food safety focused research. Identified line of research for grant development centers on developing modeling approaches to validate safety of stabilized meat products, including large sausage and uncured meats against Clostridium safety hazards by using non-sporeforming surrogate microbes and reactive enzymes. This can leverage this grant into continuing the development of enhanced food safety validation tools for the processed meats industry, helping to secure the future of fully cooked meats manufacture and sale, by reducing the risk of product safety loss, recall, andunavailability to consumers. Drs. Bergholz and Osburn have leveraged the granted project to facilitate training of recruited graduate assistants towards data collection. Dr. Bergholz has been working to complete FSIS-supported CRADA-type research and her lab has assisted in getting data onListeriainitiated for this project. Dr. Osburn has helped Dr. Taylor's group collect preliminary data by allowing his students funded on other aligned projects to assist Dr. Taylor's group by gathering pH and water activity data along with other data, giving Dr. Taylor's recruited graduate assistant added understanding of quality control measures for pH and chemical data gathering from a meat product. The project has allowed the recruitment of a graduate assistant with no functional food/meat science training. The assistantship has allowed the student (B.E. Ajayi) with opportunity to complement previous academic training in microbiology with formal instruction in value-added meats processing and food science/food formulation. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?As discussed, results to date have been reported both locally on the TAMU campus as well as nationally through volunteered presentations (see Products citations). These presentations provided opportunity for graduate assistants to gain experience at presentation of research methods and data to non-meat/food safety specialists, as well as to meat processing and safety specialists. Communications of PDs with USDA-FSIS personnel, purposed with obtainingSalmonellaisolates, have also facilitated the relay of preliminary findings and research updates from collaborators/investigators to FSIS personnel. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Initiation and completion of pathogen-inoculated fermentation and drying monitoring experiments are expected for year 2, completing phases of studies linked to Objective 1 and the first major component of Obj. 2, formulating the predictive model. These experiments will link microbiological with physico-chemical and other data streams, resulting in the multi-variate model put together by Dr. Chen. Researcher Taylorisexploring alternative funds sources to leverage the grant-funded research by preparingSalmonella-inoculated samples that also incorporate USDA-approved phages as an added antimicrobial technology to help achieve a 5.0 log-cycle reduction in the pathogen during fermentation and drying without negatively impacting the metabolic activity of starter cultures. If successful, this would add to the validation of safety of sausages against FSIS standards for minimum pathogen reduction and open a line of research not already ongoing to the researchers awareness. Dr. Osburn will assist researchers in verifying the correct formulation of the salami batter and its stuffing/preparation for inoculated experiments involving sausage fermentation and drying. He will give Dr. Taylor's student added training as needed to help ensure cross-training across meat preparations. Co-PD Chen will receive data towards model design and initial validation work. Co-PDs Taylor and Bergholz will feed data through shared data folders stored in TAMU OneDrive, and through literature reviews with recruited graduate assistants assist Chen in iterative model testing and parameterizations.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Project Data Generation:PDTaylor initiated recruited graduate student training with collaborative input from Co-PDBergholz to facilitate assembling and activating a collection of O157 and non-O157STEC provided isolates from USDA-ARS personnel. Additionally, as indicated elsewhere in this report, Co-PDBergholz assisted with identifying USDA contacts to provide 10 Salmonella isolates from 9 differing serovars collected from meat manufacturing establishments. USDA personnel were contacted and needed MTA processes completed in order to obtain the organisms from USDA-ARS with FSIS assistance. Following organisms' receipt, the student research assistant was trained and initiatedpreliminary testing to verify the growth kinetics of Salmonella organisms in the medium tryptic soy broth. STEC isolates growth characteristics were known from previously completed/already published research. The growth assay was designed to allow researchers to identify minimum reliable time at 37 C for Salmonella to enter mid-stationary phase, anticipated to provide the greatest degree of tolerance to lactic acid and dehydration processes characteristic of the manufacture of these products. Experimental data from these growth trials demonstrated 14 hr. minimum growth in nutritious medium was required for Salmonella and STEC isolates to achieve 9.0 log-cycles or greater consistently. Dr. Bergholz's group confirmed similar findings in their laboratory andalso demonstrated previously gathered data detailing pH, water activity, and pathogen reductions occurring in similarly formulated salami-style sausages. Dr. Bergholz has reported data to the group from other funded research demonstrating a consistently difficulty in achieving significant declines in Salmonella in smaller diameter sausages versus larger diameter products, potentially the result of moisture migration pattern differences, but is not suspected to be a function of pH differences. We anticipate exploring this more in depth as FSIS personnel have confirmed similar observations anecdotally and it warrants further evaluation. Dr. Bergholz's group has, along with Dr. Taylor's group, initiated the supply of quantitative data to Dr. Chen to initiate the design of a complex predictive model to begin the procedure of developing a primary validation model. Growth kinetic data from Salmonella growth have been supplied to aid model design. Co-PD Chen was supplied data from PD Bergholz to initiate the development of the initial model as well as by PD Taylor, giving parameters ofSalmonellaand STEC growth. In collaboration, Drs. Bergholz and Taylor have initiated experiments to compare quantitatively the counts ofSalmonella,L. monocytogenesand STEC isolates inoculated into a standard salami batter formula (provided and verified by Co-PD Osburn) to track the fermentation of acid from dextrose from each of three differing commercial starter culture products (one powder, one liquid, one frozen concentrate). These experiments will be completed for sausages filled into 19 and 32 mm casings (collagen) to determine if diameter impacts fermentation onset and kinetics. From these samples, pathogen counts forSalmonellawill be compared both by plating and via qPCR (BAX Hygiena) to compare and initiate understanding of whether qPCR can effectively substitute for plate counts. Additionally, researchers will track Ct values forLm-inoculated sausages to quantitate the parameters of PCR-based pathogen detection and relate to counts of pathogen cells, leveraging research funding to add new data to the intended model and improve its industrial usefulness. Co-PD Osburn has led his group in identifying a useful batter and has verified capability to formulate and produce a baseline salami product, as well as experimentally designed a commercial environmental chamber to be able to hold experimental sausage links with wireless data loggers for product temperature and environmental humidity and windspeed. Probes have been identified and obtained allowing for surface temperature and core temperature monitoring, as well as pH and water activity probes for physico-chemical data gathering incrementally. These plans and activities have assisted in researchers nearly completing research studies linked to Objective 1, producing data that are being fed to Co-PD Chen to initiate Objective 2. Team Meetings:A team meeting was held in late August 2023 wherein initial plans were formulated and project-recruited student(s) were introduced to Co-PIs, via Zoom. The project timeline was reviewed for the initial phase of the project, and discussions were held on the topics of starter cultures selection for "worst-case" scenario replication. PIs Bergholz and Taylor agreed to and successfully recruit a selection of Salmonella enterica isolates from the USDA-FSIS that were previously collected from commercial fermented meat and processed meat manufacturing environments. Dr. Bergholz leveraged ongoing research and networks to identify useful USDA points of contact to facilitate the initial outreach leading to investigators' collection of isolates. A second meeting was completed May 2024, wrapping the Spring academic term's completion of research on aligned projects and outlining research goals for the Summer 2024 term and into the Fall term, initiating Year 2 of the project. Data Management Plan Accomplish: Texas A&M Agrilife's use of Microsoft's OneDrive/Sharepoint system is leveraged to create a shared data storing location, allowing research data to be deposited for storage and access by project research personnel. This forms a centralized repository in addition to investigators' respective personal data storage mechanisms/satellite storage forms/sites.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Taylor, M., W. Osburn, J. Chen, and T.M. Bergholz. 2023. Validation of microbial pathogen control on dried RTE sausages by novel antimicrobial and mathematical approaches. 2023 U.S. Department of Agriculture - National Institute for Food and Agriculture Investigators Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Ajayi, B.E., W.N. Osburn, and T.M. Taylor. 2024. Validation of Salmonella and STEC control in uncooked fermented sausage products. 2024 Texas A&M University Student Research Week, College Station, TX.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Ajayi, B.E., W.N. Osburn, and T.M. Taylor. 2024. Validation of Salmonella and STEC control in uncooked fermented sausage products. Texas A&M University - College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Mini Research Symposium, College Station, TX.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Harrison, A., A.L. Shimwa, N. Broz, K. Zwally, W. Osburn, A. Pollock, and T.M. Taylor. 2023. Comparing Salmonella enterica to two non-pathogenic surrogates in an uncooked, fermented, and dried sausage process. American Meat Science Association 2023 Reciprocal Meat Conference, Minneapolis, MN.
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