Acta Vet. Brno 2025, 94: 67-75

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb202594010067

Assessment of the Cronobacter sakazakii risk in reconstituted infant formula

Šárka Bursová1, Danka Haruštiaková2,3, Lenka Necidová1, Iveta Vaňková1, Veronika Čurečková1, Matej Tkáč1, Kateřina Stojanová1, Radka Hulánková1, Jozef Golian4

1University of Veterinary Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, Department of Animal Origin Food & Gastronomic Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
2Masaryk University, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Brno, Czech Republic
3Masaryk University, Faculty of Science, RECETOX, Brno, Czech Republic
4Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, Department of Food Hygiene and Safety, Nitra, Slovak Republic

Received October 24, 2024
Accepted November 12, 2024

The study focused on assessing Cronobacter sakazakii growth in reconstituted powdered infant formula at temperatures ranging from 5 °C to 48 °C using the Baranyi-Roberts model. The count of C. sakazakii was determined by the plate method on ESIA agar (44 °C, 24 h). Bacteria grew in reconstituted milk only at temperatures above 8 °C. The lag phase duration decreased with increasing temperature, from approximately 123.0–141.0 h at 8 °C to 0.931–1.281 h at 44 °C. The growth rate ranged from 0.025–0.027 ln cfu/ml/h (8 °C) to 2.441–2.633 ln cfu/ml/h (44 °C). The resulting growth models imply an increase of more than 4 orders of magnitude in the number of C. sakazakii in less than 17 h at 24 °C; at temperatures of 27 °C and above, the bacteria reach the critical concentration considered in our study (8 log cfu) in a few hours (4.5–11.9 h). In conclusion, it is unsafe and inappropriate to store reconstituted infant milk at temperatures higher than 8 °C.

Funding

This study was supported by the Internal Grant Agency of the University of Veterinary Sciences Brno (grant No. IGA 209/2018/FVHE).

References

21 live references