(US FDA, 2010a). The CDC (2010) outbreak summary indicated that, from July 2009 through April 2010, at least 272
people in 44 states in the US were infected by Salmonella Montevideo as a result of consuming ready-to-eat salami products that
were manufactured using contaminated black and red pepper
spices. Numerous recalls of black peppers due to Salmonella
contamination have been issued over the last several years. Likewise, Salmonella Tennessee contamination of HVP led to product
recalls in 2010. No illnesses associated with the contaminated HVP
were reported by the FDA (2010b). Any food product formulated
with the contaminated pepper or HVP spices were recalled with the
exception of products that were processed in a manner deemed
lethal to Salmonella (US FDA, 2010a and 2010c). Additionally,
products that were labeled with proper cooking instructions that
would be sufficient to kill Salmonella were also exempted from the
recall. Outbreaks and recalls from dried ingredients such as pepper
and HVP have caused many food processors to consider the additional food safety risks associated with these ingredients.
Savory meat flavor bases, most often produced as either a dry
powder or paste, is a product group that often uses black pepper,
HVP, or both as ingredients. These low water activity products
contain meat extracts, other spices and large percentages of salt
and are often used as flavor bases in the preparation of soups,
sauces, gravies, stews, dips or any dish that requires a meat flavor.
When preparing such dishes, the temperature attained in the
cooking step would likely be adequate to kill any Salmonella that
comes with these dry ingredients. As the cooking instructions were
provided in the package, savory flavor bases were not recalled in
the Salmonella outbreaks of 2009e2010, even though they contained the contaminated pepper or HVP as an ingredient.
Savory meat flavor bases have a long, non-refrigerated shelf life.
Currently, there is limited published data on the fate of Salmonella,
if present, during storage of savory meat bases. The outbreaks of
Salmonella spp. linked to dry spices have brought into question the
safety of meat bases. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to
determine the survival of a five-strain cocktail of Salmonella in
chicken base paste (aw 0.709 ± 0.029) and chicken base powder (aw
0.282 ± 0.020), both formulated at regular-salt, 45% reduced-salt
and 90% reduced-salt levels.