• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.73-78
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• 2002

Bacillus polyfermenticus SCD, which is commonly called as Bisroot strain, is being used for functional foods through the treatment of long-term intestinal disorders, since the live strains in the form of active endospores can successfully reach the target intestine in both humans and animals. The cells of B. polyfermenticus SCD were treated for 24 h in artifical bile after incubation for 2 h in artificial gastric juice and final number of the strain was reached to around $3.3{times}10^7\;CFU/mL$. In test of API ZYM kit, ${\beta}-glucuronidase$ or ${\beta}-glucosidase$ was not produced by B. polyfermenticus SCD. B. polyfermenticus SCD was resistant to antibiotics, such as nisin, streptomycin, tetracycline, and rifamycin. B. polyfermenticus SCD was also affected by alcohol concentration up to 4%, but more than 8%, their growth was not affected significantly. Finally, B. polyfermenticus SCD was shown to inhibit the growth of Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 19111 completely within 24 h of incubation, which indicated its bactericidal nature.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.216-221
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• 2016

This study was performed to evaluate the bactericidal efficacy of a fumigation disinfectant containing 35% paraformaldehyde against Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium). In this study, the efficacy test of a fumigant against S. Typhimurium was carried out according to French standard NF T 72-281. The S. Typhimurium working culture suspension number (N value), all bacteria numbers on the carriers exposed to the fumigant (n1, n2, and n3), the number of bacterial suspensions by the pour plate method (N1), the number of bacterial suspensions by the filter membrane method (N2), and the mean number of bacteria recovered on the control carriers (T value), were obtained from the preliminary test. In addition, the reduction number of S. Typhimurium exposed to the fumigant (d value) was calculated using the T value, the mean number of bacteria in the recovery solution (n'1) and the mean number of bacteria on carriers plated in agar (n'2). The N value was $5.5{\times}10^8$ colony forming units (CFU)/mL, and n1, n2, and n3 were higher than 0.5N1, 0.5N2 and 0.5N1, respectively. Additionally, the T value was $3.5{\times}10^6CFU/carrier$. In terms of the bactericidal effect of the fumigant, the d value was 5.25. According to the French standard for fumigants, the d value for an effective bactericidal fumigant should be greater than 5. The results indicated that the fumigant containing 35% paraformaldehyde had an efficient bactericidal activity against S. Typhimurium, and, therefore, can be used to disinfect food materials and kitchen appliances contaminated with foodborne bacteria.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.245-248
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• 2014

Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae is the causal agent of bacterial canker in kiwifruit (genus Actinidia). Multilocus sequence analysis of seven housekeeping and 11 type III effector genes differentiated the virulent P. syringae pv. actinidiae isolates worldwide into three groups designated as Psa1-Psa3. In this work, a total of 12 P. syringae pv. Actinidiae strains, including three Psa1, three Psa2, three Psa3 strains isolated from Korea and three Psa3 strains from Italy, were compared based on their phenotypic properties. Strains with different geographic origins had unique growth patterns as demonstrated by growth rate at several temperatures; all tested strains exhibited maximum growth at temperatures below $22^{\circ}C$, while the growth of Psa3 strains was completely inhibited above $30^{\circ}C$. Psa3 strains isolated from Korea had longer lag phases than the Psa3 strains from Italy. The Psa2 strains were different from Psa1 and Psa3 strains in the API 20NE test, in which the Psa2 strains could not utilize potassium gluconate, capric acid and trisodium citrate. Psa3 strains isolated from Korea could hydrolyze esculin. The API ZYM test showed that ${\beta}$-glucosidase activity was detected only from Psa3 strains. The strains belonging to the three Psa groups differed with regard to their susceptibility to ampicillin, novobiocin, and oleandomycin.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.319-323
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to investigate the microbial contamination levels of ginseng and ginseng products distributed in markets. A total of 81 ginseng and ginseng products samples (fresh ginseng 37, white ginseng 15, red ginseng 15, red ginseng beverage 14) were tested to analyze sanitary indicator bacteria (total aerobic bacteria, coliforms and Escherichia coli), major foodborne pathogens, and fungi. The contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria and coliforms were in the range of 3.19 to 7.02 log CFU/g for fresh ginseng, 0.25 to 7.31 log CFU/g for white ginseng, 0 to 2.89 log CFU/g for red ginseng and 0 to 1.70 log CFU/mL for red ginseng beverage. In case of major foodborne pathogens, B. cereus was detected at levels of 0.50 to 2.41 log CFU/g in samples except red ginseng beverage. Fungi was detected at levels of 2.41 log CFU/g in fresh ginseng, the contamination levels of the other ginseng products samples were lower than 1 log CFU/g or mL. These results indicate that the ginseng and ginseng products were comparatively safe with respect to microbiological hazard.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.103-117
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• 2017

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of green tea extract on probiotic potential, physico-chemical and functional properties of yogurt fermented with Lactobacillus acidophilus D11 or Lactobacillus fermentum D37 strains isolated from Doenjang. Probiotic activities such as the resistance to artificial digestive juices and the ability to adhere to epithelial cells were slightly higher in yogurt supplemented with green tea extract than in plain yogurt, which may be attributed to the increase in the number of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) by green tea extract supplementation. Furthermore, the microbiological and physico-chemical properties such as the number of LAB, organic acid production and viscosity were significantly (P<0.05) increased in yogurt added green tea extract compared to plain yogurt fermented with L. acidophilus D11. However, the green tea extract did not significantly (P>0.05) affect these properties of yogurt fermented with L. fermentum D37 strain. Meanwhile, the antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli O157 ATCC 43889, Salmonella enteritidis ATCC 13076, and Salmonella typhimurium KCTC 2514 and antioxidant activities including total phenol content, radical scavenging ability, and ferric-reducing antioxidant power were significantly higher in plain yogurt fermented with L. fermentum D37 than with L. acidophilus D11. The antibacterial and antioxidant activities of the yogurt were significantly (P<0.05) increased in proportion to the concentration of green tea extract added to plain yogurt. Consequently, green tea yogurt fermented with L. acidophilus D11 or L. fermentum D37 was considered to be a useful functional food that can inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria and scavenge the free radicals from the body cells.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.449-455
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to evaluate antimicrobial effects of organic acid and some natural occurring antimicrobials against Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various origins (vegetables, peanut, pea leaf, kim-bab, person, perilla leaf, and animal) and to calculate their MIC and MBC values. Five organic acids (acetic, lactic, citric, malic, and propionic acid), three essential oils (carvacrol, thymol, and eugenol), and two other natural antimicrobials (nisin and cinnamic acid) were evaluated for their antimicrobial effects against 113 strains of S. aureus using combination treatments. Propionic acid (7%), nisin (1%), thymol (1%), carvacrol (1%) showed antimicrobial activities against S. aureus strains in agar disc diffusion test. And, carvacrol, thymol, and nisin were found to be the most effective with the lowest MIC values of 0.0313%, 0.0625%, and 0.0625% against S.aureus, respectively. Propionic acid (0.2313%) and citric acid (0.6000%) were the most effective among organic acids tested. Therefore, these five antimicrobials were selected for next combination treatments. Combination of propionic acid and citric acid were showed the strongest inhibitory effectiveness against S. aureus among combination treatments. These results suggest that organic acid such as propionic and citric acid, and natural occurring antimicrobial such as nisin, carvacrol, and thymol might be possibly used as preservatives for inhibiting S. aureus in foods.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.427-431
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• 2012

This study was conducted to monitor and evaluate microbial contamination during manufacturing process in 6 red pepper powder factories. Red pepper powder samples were taken from manufacturing facilitates, working area and workers' hands to determine sanitary indicator bacteria (SIB) such as aerobic bacteria and coliform group as well as pathogenic indicator bacteria (PIB) such as Staphylococcus aureus, E.coli, Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus cereus. The results indicated that SIB in primary materials was detected as low as 3 log units and E.coil and Staphylococcus aureus of PIB were detected. After grinding process, aerobic bacteria, fungi, and coliform group increased 52% and 108%, respectively. In final products, PIB was not detected except for one found Staphylococcus aureus by which workers' hands were contaminated. Moreover, UV detectors in all the manufacturers were not able to reduce bacteria. Thus, this data suggest that a stringent safety management be needed to prevent cross contamination, and also reconsider effectiveness of facility.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.328-331
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• 2018

A severe disease with leaf spots and necrotic symptoms was observed in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) seedlings in April 2018 at a nursery in Kimjae, Korea (35o 47'09.8"N 127o 2'24.3"E). The infected plants initially showed spots on water-soaked cotyledons which, at later stages, enlarged and spread to the leaves, which the lesions becoming dry and chlorotic. The symptomatic samples were collected from cucumber and the isolates were cultured on LB agar. The representative bacterial strain selected for identification showed fluorescent on King's medium B, was potato rot-positive, levan and arginine dihydrolase-negative, oxidase-negative and tobacco hypersensitivity-positive in LOPAT group 2 as determined by LOPAT tests. A pathogenicity test was carried out on a 3-week-old cucumber. After 3 days of inoculation, leaf spots and necrotic symptoms appeared on the cucumber, similar to the originally infected plants. The infecting bacterial strain was identified as Pseudomonas viridiflava, by 16S rDNA sequence analysis. This is the first report of leaf spot diseases on cucumber caused by P. viridiflava.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.552-560
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• 2020

Listeria monocytogenes is a highly pathogenic gram-positive bacterium that is easily isolated from cheese, meat, processed meat products, and smoked salmon. A zero-tolerance (n=5, c=0, m=0/25 g) criteria has been applied for L. monocytogenes in cheese meaning that L. monocytogenes must not be detected in any 25 g of samples. However, there was a lack of scientific information behind this criteria. Therefore, in this study, we conducted a risk assessment based on literature reviews to provide scientific information supporting the baseline and to raise public awareness of L. monocytogenes foodborne illness. Quantitative risk assessment of L. monocytogenes for cheese was conducted using the following steps: exposure assessment, hazard characterization, and risk characterization. As a result, the initial contamination level of L. monocytogenes was -4.0 Log CFU/g in cheese. The consumption frequency of cheese was 11.8%, and the appropriate probability distribution for amount of cheese consumed was a Lognormal distribution with an average of 32.5 g. In conclusion, the mean of probabilities of foodborne illness caused by the consumption of cheese was 5.09×10-7 in the healthy population and 4.32×10-6 in the susceptible population. Consumption frequency has the biggest effect on the probability of foodborne illness, but storage and transportation times have also been found to affect the probability of foodborne illness; thus, management of the distribution environment should be considered important. Through this risk assessment, scientific data to support the criteria for L. monocytogenes in cheese could be obtained. In addition, we recommend that further risk assessment studies of L. monocytogenes in various foods be conducted in the future.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.254-261
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• 2019

BACKGROUND: Agricultural water is known to be one of the major routes in bacterial contamination of fresh vegetable. However, there is a lack of fundamental data on the microbial safety of agricultural water in Korea. METHODS AND RESULTS: We investigated the density of indicator bacteria in the surface water samples from 31 sites collected in April, July, and October 2018, while the groundwater samples were collected from 20 sites within Jeollabuk-do in April and July 2018. In surface water, the mean density of coliform, fecal coliform, and Escherichia coli was 2.7±0.55, 1.9±0.71, and 1.4±0.58 log CFU/100 mL, respectively, showing the highest bacterial density in July. For groundwater, the mean density of coliform, fecal coliform, and E. coli was 1.9±0.58, 1.4±0.37, and 1.0±0.33 log CFU/ 100mL, respectively, showing no significant difference between sampling time. The survival of E. coli O157:H7 were prolonged in water with higher organic matter contents such as total nitrogen (TN), and nitrate-nitrogen (NO₃-N). The reduction rates of E. coli O157:H7 in the water showed greater in order of 25, 35, 5, and 15℃. CONCLUSION: These results can be utilized as fundamental data for prediction the microbiological contamination of agricultural water and the development of microbial prevention technology.