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Quantitative microbial risk assessment for Clostridium perfringens foodborne illness following consumption of kimchi in South Korea

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to conduct a risk assessment for Clostridium perfringens foodborne illness via kimchi consumption in South Korea. Prevalence of C. perfringens in kimchi, kimchi consumption amount and frequency, and distribution conditions (time and temperature) from manufacture to the home were determined. C. perfringens initial contamination level was estimated using Beta distribution [Beta (6, 79)]. Potential C. perfringens cell counts during distribution were predicted using the Weibull model (primary models, R2 = 0.923–0.953) and a polynomial model [(δ = 1/(0.2385 + (− 0.0307 × Temp) + (0.0011 × Temp2)), R2 = 0.719]. Average daily consumption data was assessed using Gamma distribution [1.0444, 91.767, RiskShift (0.16895), RiskTruncate (0, 1078)]. The mean risk of C. perfringens-associated foodborne illness following kimchi consumption was found to be 1.21 × 10−17. These results suggest that the risk of C. perfringens foodborne illness from kimchi consumption, under current conditions, can be considered to be very low in S. Korea.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Grant (17162MFDS035) from Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2018.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food and Nutrition, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, 04310, Korea

    Yukyung Choi, Joohyun Kang, Yewon Lee, Yeongeun Seo, Hyemin Oh, Yujin Kim & Yohan Yoon

  2. Risk Analysis Research Center, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, 04310, Korea

    Heeyoung Lee, Sejeong Kim, Jeeyeon Lee, Jimyeong Ha & Yohan Yoon

  3. Department of Food Science and Technology, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, 17546, Korea

    Kye-Hwan Byun & Sang-Do Ha

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  1. Yukyung Choi
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  2. Joohyun Kang
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Correspondence to Yohan Yoon.

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Fig. 3
figure 3

Beta distribution of the initial contamination level (IC) of Clostridium perfringens in kimchi, fitted with @RISK version 7.6

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Choi, Y., Kang, J., Lee, Y. et al. Quantitative microbial risk assessment for Clostridium perfringens foodborne illness following consumption of kimchi in South Korea. Food Sci Biotechnol 29, 1131–1139 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-020-00754-2

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