How safe are fruit juices and acid foods?
Acid tolerance of enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and Salmonella spp. in fruit juices and other acid foods In the previous issue of Food Safety and Hygiene (December 1996) mention was made of a 1996 food poisoning incident in the USA and Canada caused by E. coli O157:H7 in which unpasteurised apple juice was implicated as the vehicle of infection. Unpasteurised apple juice, usually referred to as apple cider in North America, was the source of E. coli O157:H7 in a food poisoning incident in Massachusetts in 1991 (Besser et al. 1993). An earlier outbreak in Canada involving 14 cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome in children was also associated with unpasteurised apple juice although the infectious agent was not identified (Steele, Murphy and Rance 1982). Apple cider was identified as the vehicle for a food poisoning outbreak in New Jersey in 1974 caused by Salmonella typhimurium. Samples of the juice recovered during this outbreak had pH values ranging from 3.4 – 3.9 (Goverd et al. 1
