The Yersinia enterocolitica species tolerance to temperature

The behaviour of Yersinia enterocolitica's species to different temperatures has been studied. The tests have been carried out on artificial contaminated food products and liquid or solid mediums inoculated with purified strains. Following the contamination sources represented by refrigerated food and cocked food, we have considered appropriate to carry out some investigations that revealed the optimum growing and preserving temperatures of Yersinia enterocolitica, their life period at low temperatures (frozen or refrigerated food products) or at high temperatures (boiled food products). The analysis of the results obtained has demonstrated that Yersinia enterocolitica species are not completely destroyed by freezing temperatures (at -18 and -12°C in max. 20 days), but are destroyed relatively quickly at high temperatures (at 70°C in max. 10 min.). Instead, the refrigerating temperature or the temperatures between 10 to 40°C offer the preservation or multiplication conditions for Yersinia enterocolitica strains.