Heat resistance comparison of Salmonella and Enterococcus faecium in cornmeal at different moisture levels.

Adequate surrogate identification is critical for validating in-plant thermal process controls for Salmonella inactivation in different food matrices. This study compared the thermal inactivation parameters (D- and z-values) and evaluated the heat resistance of Enterococcus faecium (8459) as a surrogate for a 5-serovar Salmonella cocktail in cornmeal. The cornmeal was spray inoculated with the respective bacteria to achieve ~9 log CFU/g population and set to the desired moisture contents (16, 22, and 28% w.