ABSTRACT
The preservation is a key issue for the development of food industry, however, the
usage of synthetic preservatives has been questioned increasingly as one of the main
methods in food preservation recently. According to the UK Food Standards Agency in
2 0 0 6 , s o m e s o f t d r i n k s c o n t a i n s o d i u m b e n z o a t e , v i t a m i n C w h i c h c o u l d g e n e r a t e
carcinogens. Therefore, finding safe and effective food preservatives has become a hot
topic in food science.
As an efficient, stable, safe food additive, sodium lactate (NaL) has been used as food
preservation especially in chilled meat industry, and related studies have been widely
r e p o r t e d t h e s e d a y s. P s e u d o m o n a s a e r u g i n o s a i s a s p e c i f i c s p o i l a g e b a c t e r i a i n
chilled pork. Recent studies have been focus on the preservative of chilled p or k and
m e a t p r o d u c t s, w i t h P s e u d o m o n a s a e r u g i n o s a u s u s a l l y w o r k e d a s a n i n d i c a t o r. T h i s
study aims on the inhibitive and preservative effects of NaL. Contents and results are as
following:
(1) Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from corruption pork, then some
e x p e r i m e n t s w e r e c a r r i e d o u t , i n c l u d i n g p u r i f y i n g c u l t u r e , o b s e r v i n g t h e c o l o n y
morphology, gram stain test, oxidase test, catalase test and double-arginine hydrolase
preliminary experiments. Results showed that P12 and P18 were initially identified as
Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Then P12 and P18 were inoculated on nutrient culture for 48
h , a n d m e d i a s u r f a c e h a d d a r k g r e e n e l e m e n t s , i n d i c a t i n g t h a t t h e b a c t e r i a w a s
Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains.
(2) The special inhibition of NaL on the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and
the effect of pH value on the inhibition of NaL were studied in this part. Nutrient broth
was used for medium with different concentrations (0.0%, 0.2%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%,
2 . 0 % ( W / V ) ) o f N a L a n d d i f f e r e n t p H v a l u e s ( 4 . 00~ 6 . 20) , w h i c h o b s e r v e d a t
25.0 ℃. The result showed that the addition of NaL significantly inhibited the growth
o f Pseudomonas aeruginosa, but NaCl did not under the same pH 4.80 (P<0.01).
Moreover, the higher concentration of NaL, the more significant influence of inhibition
(2.0%>1.0%>0.5%). The effect of pH value on the inhibition of NaL was significant
and the more effective of the inhibition with lower pH values. This study showed that
t h e c r i t i c a l a n t i m i c r o b i a l p H v a l u e p r o v i d e d t h e b a s i s f o r s e l e c t i o n o f e f f e c t i v e
concentration of NaL in practice.
( 3 ) I n o r d e r t o v e r i f y t h e f i n d i n g s o b t a i n e d f r o m nu t r i e n t b r o t h e x p e r i m e n t ,
c h i l l e d p o r k w a s u s e d a s n u t r i e n t m e d i a . T h e r e s u l t s s h o w e d t h a t N a L h a d a g o o d
preservative effect for chilled pork (8.0 ℃), meanwhile, low concentrations (<2.0%,
W/W) NaCl was not conducive for the preservation of chilled pork. The higher of
-III-