2026/07/16 by Eugênio da Piedade Edmundo, Eugênio da Piedade Edmundo Sitoe, Matheus Péricles Silva Láscaris +4
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Food Drying and Modeling #Listeria monocytogenes in Food Safety #Salmonella and Campylobacter epidemiology
paper · doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2026.112470
openalex publication_date 2026/07/16 · openalex created_date 2026/07/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
ABSTRACT This study evaluated the survival of Salmonella enterica serovars Senftenberg (IOC 2319) and Typhimurium (ATCC 14028) in black pepper under different treatment conditions, storage temperatures, and storage periods. An integrated approach combining kinetic modeling, multivariate analysis, and machine learning was used to identify the main determinants of microbial persistence. Previously inoculated grains were subjected to normal atmosphere packaging (NA), vacuum packaging (V), ozone-modified atmosphere packaging (MA (O 3 )), and controlled relative humidity (RH) conditions (30 and 70 %). Samples were stored at 2 and 25 °C, and microbial survival was monitored over time (0–192 h). For MA (O 3 ) at 25 °C, the evaluation period was adjusted to 0–60 h. Water activity (Aw) and color parameters were also monitored. The survival kinetics of Salmonella spp. were described by the Weibull model, with δ values ranging from 0.45 to 22.99 days. The highest microbial persistence occurred under NA at 2 °C, whereas O 3 -modified atmosphere packaging and 30 % RH reduced survival. Multivariate analysis showed that storage time and treatment conditions explained more than 50 % of the observed variation in microbial survival. Factor analysis identified three latent dimensions explaining 62 % of the total variance. Random Forest regression showed high predictive performance (R 2 = 0.94), remaining robust under Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation (R 2 = 0.91). Variable importance analysis identified O 3 treatment and storage time as the main predictors of Salmonella spp. survival, followed by storage temperature and Aw. Overall, Salmonella spp. persistence in black pepper was primarily governed by the combined effects of treatment, storage duration, temperature, and Aw.