Effects of drying temperature and surface characteristics of vegetable on the survival of salmonella.

The heat resistance of Salmonella Anatum inoculated on the surface of a model vegetable as affected by hot-air drying temperature (50 to 70 degrees C) and surface characteristics was determined in this study. Cabbage was selected as a model vegetable to demonstrate the effect of topographical feature of vegetable surface on the Salmonella attachment ability. An image analysis technique was developed to monitor the change of cabbage surface during drying and the specific surface characteristics were described in terms of the roughness factor (R).