• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.112-120
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• 1998

This study was performed to investigate the synergistic effect of chitosan and sorbic acid as a new food preservative. So it was performed to investigate inhibitory effect on growh of E. coli 0157:H7, gram negative pathogenic food borne disease bacteria and of S. aureus, gram positive food borne disease bacteria in chitosan, sorbic acid and combination of chitosan and sorbic acid. Minimun Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of chitosan in E. coli 0157:H7 was 500 ppm at pH 5.0, 250 ppm at pH 5.5, 500 ppm at pH 6.0, and 2000 ppm at pH 6.5, while in Staph. aureus 31.25 ppm at pH 5.0 and 62. 5 ppm at more than pH 5.5. also, MIC of sorbic acid in E. coli 0157:H7 was 500 ppm at pH 5.0, 1500 ppm at pH 5.5, and 2000 ppm at more than pH 6.0, while in Staph. aureus 1500 ppm at pH 5.0 and more than 2000 ppm at more than pH 5.5. Due to the effect of pH in E. coli 0157:H7, MIC of combined chitosan and sorbic acid was 500 ppm of chitosan with 500 ppm of sorbic acid at pH 6.5, but 250 ppm of chitosan with 31.3 ppm of sorbic acid at pH 5.0. In Staph. aureus, there was great effect of chitosan, but neither effect of pH nor sorbic acid. When E. coli 0157:H7 were treated with 500 ppm of chitosan with 500 ppm of sorbic acid and 250 ppm of chitosan with 250 ppm of sorbic acid at pH 6.5, they were inhibited. But, they were increased at the initial concentration of bacteria at 1000 ppm of chitosan in 18 hours, at 500 ppm of chitosan in 36 hours. There was no effect of growth inhibition with sorbic acid but great effect with chitosan on Staph. aureus. The correl~tions between MICs of chitosan and sorbic acid in E. coli 0157:H7 accoding to pH were higher than those in Staph. aureus. R values in E. coli 0157:H7 were 0.95 (p<0.01), 0.99 (p<0.01), 0.97 (p<0.01), and 0.99 (p<0.01) at pH 6.5, 6.0, 5.5, and 5.0 respectively. The synergistic effect of chitosan and sorbic acid in E. coli 0157:H7 could be confirmed from the result of this experiment. Therefore, it was expected that the food preservation would increase or maintain by using sorble acid together with chitosan, natural food additive that did no harm to human body.