Purpose: The goal of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of corn oil as an additive to the preenrichment broth used for the recovery of Salmonella from various spices.
Methods: The spices evaluated were Jamaican allspice, Vietnamese cinnamon, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, whole thyme leaves, onion powder, garlic powder, ground black pepper, and Turkish oregano. Each spice was artificially contaminated with Salmonella enterica Montevideo (1,000 CFU/25 g) and aged for two weeks at room temperature. The aged samples were preenriched in TSB with and without 2% (v/v) corn oil. Following 18 to 24 h of incubation at 37°C, aliquots from both preenrichment broths were transferred to selective enrichment broths and subsequently plated on Xylose-Lysine-Tergitol 4 (XLT-4) Agar for enumeration.
Results: The results demonstrated a statistically significant increase (P≤0.008) of Salmonella recovery when corn oil was added to the preenrichment broth for whole cloves and onion powder. Vietnamese cinnamon, cinnamon sticks, onion powder, and garlic powder did not show recovery of Salmonella, regardless of the method used. The remaining spices had Salmonella recovery with corn oil.
Significance: The data presented demonstrated that the recovery of Salmonella from some spices is enhanced by the addition of corn oil to the preenrichment broth. This will increase the FDA’s ability to detect pathogens in difficult spice matrices.