Survival of Arcobacter butzleri and Campylobacter jejuni after irradiation treatment in vacuum-packaged ground pork

The ability of Arcobacter butzleri to survive irradiation under vacuum in ground pork was determined and compared with that of Campylobacter jejuni. The D-10 value for A. burzleri (0.27 kGy) was 1.4x higher than that of C. jejuni (0.19 kGy). In addition, the D-10 values for both organisms showed that an irradiation treatment of 1.5 kGy would yield a 5-log-unit reduction in the number of A. butzleri cells and a 7-log-unit reduction in the number of C. jejuni cells. This is sufficient to render meat products safe from these pathogens. These data indicate that A. butzleri is more tolerant to irradiation than C. jejuni.