During thermal processing of braised sauce beef, the lipid content of circularly used sauce increased accordingly because of lipid migration from beef to sauce, which may impact the bacterial heat resistance in the products. This study aims to characterize the heat resistance of Clostridium sporogenes spores in braised sauce beef, and investigate the effects of oil on the spore surface characteristics and microstructure. The results indicated that the heat resistance of C. sporogenes spores in beef was significantly higher than that in sauce. Oil addition remarkably enhanced the spore heat resistance in sauce, with D95°C value three times more than that without oil added, and even higher than that in beef. The results of spore surface characteristics indicated that oil addition led to an increase of hydrophobicity and a decrease of zeta potential, which ultimately increased spore heat resistance. Microstructure analysis indicated that exosporium maintenance and cortex expansion induced by oil addition might contribute to the increase of spore heat resistance. This study has sufficiently verified the importance of oil content on the heat resistance of C. sporogenes spores, which should be taken into consideration when developing thermal processes for controlling the spores in food matrices.
Keywords: D-values; Exosporium; Spore surface properties; Thermal processing.
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