Time and temperature on E. Coli survival during hot water treatment of spoons

Abstract

Escherichia coli is an indicator of microbial contamination in food production. It can cause several health problems, such as, bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever. To avoid the foodborne illness, it is a normal practice in Thai cafeterias, food courts and canteens for consumers to immerse their spoons into hot water. Unfortunately, there was no any information regarding temperature and time to inactivate E. coli attached on spoons. The objective of this study was to determine the sufficient time and temperature to destroy E. coli attached on spoons. It was revealed that a temperature at either 90ºC for at least 10 s or at 100ºC for at least 5 s could completely inactivate E. coli. Water temperature and time that consumers used for immersing spoons into a water bath were also observed. It was found that the temperature of the hot water was approximately 70-80ºC and the time for dipping spoons collected from 100 people was 3-7 s. Considering the survival curve of E. coli during heating, it indicated that this condition could not completely inactivate E. coli attached on their spoons.