| | Category | MI | L28 | Is the Salsa Safe? |
| | Abstract | An astounding 1 in every 25 cases of restaurant related foodborne |
| | illnesses is traced back to salsa! Salmonella is the main bacterial culprit. |
| | Many of these cases stem from workers not using sanitary techniques |
| | (hand washing, wearing gloves, etc.) or not refrigerating the salsa |
| | properly (1). That is why I decided to find out if there was a way to |
| | prevent foodborne illnesses caused by contaminated salsa. |
| | Three common ingredients in salsa - garlic, hot peppers, and lime juice - |
| | have been shown to inhibit various types of bacteria (2, 3, 4, 6, 7). I |
| | believe that adding garlic, hot peppers, or lime juice will decrease or |
| | prevent bacterial growth in salsa contaminated with Salmonella |
| | typhimurium (ATCC 14028). |
| | I tested this by making a salsa without garlic, lime juice, or hot peppers. |
| | Then I made salsa samples with varying amounts of each ingredient |
| | individually and then contaminated the samples with S. typhimurium. The |
| | samples were cultured at two different time points, 2 hours and 22 hours |
| | after contamination. By seeing how much bacteria grew in each sample, I |
| | found out whether garlic, lime juice, or hot pepper inhibited bacteria. |
| | Unfortunately, all the plates were confluent, therefore the results were |
| | inconclusive. |
| | Bibliography | 1. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2010). Salsa and |
| | Guacamole Increasingly Important Causes of Foodborne Disease. |
| | www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2010/r100712.htm. |
| | |
| | 2. Deresse, D. (2010). Antibacterial Effect of Garlic (Allium sativum) on |
| | Staphylococcus aureus: An in vitro Study. Asian Journal of Medical |
| | Sciences 2(2): 62-65. |
| | |
| | 3. Jones, N.L., Shabib, S., Sherman, P. (1997). Capsaicin as an inhibitor of |
| | the growth of gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori. FEMS Microbiology |
| | Letters 146: 223-227. |
| | |
| | 4. Jonkers, D., van den Broek, E., van Dooren, I., Thijs, C., Dorant, E., |
| | Hageman, G., and Stobberingh, E. (1999). Antibacterial effect of garlic and |
| | omeprazole on Helicobacter pylori. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy |
| | 43: 837-839. |
| | |
| | 5. Microbiology Techniques. |
| | www2.hendrix.edu/biology/CellWeb/Techniques/microspread.html. |
| | |
| | 6. Neilsen, M.K., and Arneborg N. (2006). The effect of citric acid and pH |
| | on growth and metabolism of anaerobic Saccharmyces cerevisiae and |
| | Zygosaccharomyces bailii cultures (Abstract). Food Microbiology 24: 101- |
| | 105. |
| | |
| | 7. Snyder, O.P. (1997). Antimicrobial Effects of Spices and Herbs. |
| | Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management, St. Paul, Minnesota. |
| | |
| | 8. Todar, K. (2011). Salmonella and Salmonellosis. Today’s Online Textbook |
| | of Bacteriology. www.textbookofbacteriology.net/salmonella.html. |
| | |