Quantitative microbial risk assessment for Clostridium perfringens foodborne illness following consumption of kimchi in South Korea

Yukyung Choi; Joohyun Kang; Yewon Lee; Yeongeun Seo; Heeyoung Lee; Sejeong Kim; Jeeyeon Lee; Jimyeong Ha; Hyemin Oh; Yujin Kim; Kye-Hwan Byun; Sang-Do Ha; Yohan Yoon

doi:10.1007/s10068-020-00754-2

Quantitative microbial risk assessment for Clostridium perfringens foodborne illness following consumption of kimchi in South Korea

Food Sci Biotechnol. 2020 Apr 15;29(8):1131-1139. doi: 10.1007/s10068-020-00754-2. eCollection 2020 Aug.

Authors

Yukyung Choi¹, Joohyun Kang¹, Yewon Lee¹, Yeongeun Seo¹, Heeyoung Lee², Sejeong Kim², Jeeyeon Lee², Jimyeong Ha², Hyemin Oh¹, Yujin Kim¹, Kye-Hwan Byun³, Sang-Do Ha³, Yohan Yoon^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food and Nutrition, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, 04310 Korea.
² Risk Analysis Research Center, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, 04310 Korea.
³ Department of Food Science and Technology, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, 17546 Korea.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to conduct a risk assessment for Clostridium perfringens foodborne illness via kimchi consumption in South Korea. Prevalence of C. perfringens in kimchi, kimchi consumption amount and frequency, and distribution conditions (time and temperature) from manufacture to the home were determined. C. perfringens initial contamination level was estimated using Beta distribution [Beta (6, 79)]. Potential C. perfringens cell counts during distribution were predicted using the Weibull model (primary models, R ² = 0.923-0.953) and a polynomial model [(δ = 1/(0.2385 + (- 0.0307 × Temp) + (0.0011 × Temp²)), R ² = 0.719]. Average daily consumption data was assessed using Gamma distribution [1.0444, 91.767, RiskShift (0.16895), RiskTruncate (0, 1078)]. The mean risk of C. perfringens-associated foodborne illness following kimchi consumption was found to be 1.21 × 10^-17. These results suggest that the risk of C. perfringens foodborne illness from kimchi consumption, under current conditions, can be considered to be very low in S. Korea.

Keywords: @RISK simulation; Clostridium perfringens; Dose–response; Foodborne illness; Kimchi.