Microbiological status of vegan ground meat products from German retail

The microbiological status of 10 raw plant-based ground meat products was assessed to obtain insight into contamination levels and the types of bacteria present in these meat analogues. The total bacterial counts at the end of the best before date varied greatly from below 1.0 log₁₀ CFU/g to 8.31 log₁₀ CFU/g, while the median count was 3.89 log₁₀ CFU/g. For each product, the lactic acid bacterial counts were similar, although generally between ca. 0.5 and 1 log₁₀ lower than the total bacterial counts, indicating that lactic acid bacteria were a majority in the microbiota of these products. While the median counts of toxigenic pathogens were generally very low (< 1.0 log₁₀ CFU/g), the maximum counts detected in some samples could reach up to ca. 3.0 log₁₀ CFU/g for presumptive Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus. No Listeria monocytogenes colonies were obtained in this investigation; however, other Listeria spp. were detected. Thus, the results show that a (re)contamination of these products by pathogenic bacteria can be a potential safety concern. Furthermore, the detection of presumptive B. cereus and the isolation of various Clostridium species from these products indicates that spore-formers may have survived the food processing and therefore, could pose a safety concern, which should be assessed in further studies.