Wine and alcoholic apple cider are commonly back-sweetened with unpasteurized juice to produce fresh, natural, and palatable sweetened alcoholic beverages. Foodborne pathogens may be introduced from unpasteurized juice into alcoholic beverages through this back-sweetening process. Although pathogens generally do not survive under low pH conditions or high alcohol environment, the die-off of these pathogens has not been established to ensure the safety of the products. To determine the safety of these back-sweetened beverages, we evaluated the survival of three common foodborne pathogens, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica , and Listeria monocytogenes in modified white grape juice and apple juice models. White grape juice and apple juice were modified with hydrochloric acid/sodium hydroxide and ethanol to achieve conditions that are similar to the back-sweetened white wine and alcoholic apple cider. Pathogen cocktails were inoculated separately into modified juice models and their survival in the juice models were recorded over a 96-hour period. Our results show that a combination of low pH and high ethanol content resulted in a faster pathogen die-off compared to higher pH and lower ethanol conditions. The holding times required for different combinations of pH and ethanol concentration for each juice model to achieve 5-log reduction were reported. This research provides data to validate pathogen die-off to comply with Juice HACCP 5-log pathogen inactivation requirements for back-sweetened wine and alcoholic apple cider.
This case represents a rare fulminant course of fried-rice associated food poisoning in an immunocompetent person due to pre-formed exotoxin produced by Bacillus cereus, with severe manifestations of sepsis, including multi-organ (hepatic, renal, cardiac, respiratory and neurological) failure, shock, metabolic acidosis, rhabdomyolysis and coagulopathy. Despite maximal supportive measures (continuous renal replacement therapy, plasmapheresis, N-acetylcysteine infusion and blood products, and broad-spectrum antimicrobials) and input from a multidisciplinary team (consisting of infectious diseases, intensive care, gastroenterology, surgery, toxicology, immunology and haematology), mortality resulted. This case is the first to use whole genome sequencing techniques to confirm the toxigenic potential of B. cereus. It has important implications for food preparation and storage, particularly given its occurrence in home isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
