Enhancing cell resistance for production of mixed microbiological reference materials with Salmonella and coliforms by freeze-drying.

The reference material (RM) is a technical requirement for the quality assurance of analytical results and proficiency tests or interlaboratory comparisons. Microbiological RMs are most available in the dehydrated form, mainly by freeze-drying, and maintaining bacterial survival after preparation is a challenge. Thus, obtaining the most resistant cells is essential. Considering that bacteria present cross-response to dehydration after being submitted to an array of stress conditions, this study aimed to evaluate the influence of growth conditions on enterobacteria for the production of mixed microbiological RMs by freeze-drying in skim milk powder. Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, Cronobacter sakazakii, Escherichia coli, and Citrobacter freundii were grown in a minimal medium with 0.5 M NaCl and 0 to 5.0 mM of manganese sulfate (MnSO4) until stationary phase. Salmonella Enteritidis presented an increased resistance to dehydration in the presence of Mn, while C. sakazakii was the most resistant to freeze-drying and further storage for 90 days. Mixed microbiological RMs were produced by freeze-drying and containing Salmonella Enteritidis and coliforms in skim milk powder with 100 mM of trehalose and the Salmonella survival rate was 91.2 to 93.6%. The mixed RM was stable after 30 days at -20 °C, and Salmonella and coliforms were detected by different methods being, the Rambach Agar the best for the bacterial differentiation. The results showed that the culture conditions applied in this study resulted in bacterial cells being more resistant to dehydration, freeze-drying, and stabilization for the production of mixed microbiological RMs more stable and homogeneous.