Fecha de publicación: -- Fuente: PubMed "essential oil" Food Microbiol. 2027 Mar;142:105325. doi: 10.1016/j.fm.2026.105325. Epub 2026 Oct 9.ABSTRACTFresh produce carries diverse background microbiota, yet antimicrobial studies often use disinfected or microbiologically simplified models. In a mapping of 151 studies from Web of Science Core Collection records published from 2022 to 2025, 64.2% used natural or untreated matrices and 35.8% used disinfected matrices, suggesting that experimental design may affect interpretation of pathogen persistence and intervention efficacy. We therefore compared Salmonella survival on lettuce and mung bean sprouts at 7 °C under background microbiota-retained (BG+) and reduced-background (BG-) conditions, with or without oregano essential oil vapor. On lettuce, Salmonella counts were consistently higher in BG- than in BG + samples (P < 0.05), whereas retail bean sprouts showed no BG-dependent difference (P > 0.05). To examine the change of microbiota during sprout development, Salmonella was inoculated into mung bean seeds and monitored during germination. By day 6, Salmonella reached 7.4 ± 0.4 log CFU/g in BG- sprouts but only 6.2 ± 0.5 log CFU/g in BG + sprouts (P < 0.05). During subsequent refrigerated storage, Salmonella counts increased in BG + sprouts but declined in BG- sprouts. Oregano essential oil vapor produced reductions of 0.9 ± 0.4 and 2.6 ± 0.4 log CFU/g in BG+ and BG- sprouts, respectively (P < 0.05). Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing identified Pantoea as the most abundant genus in mature sprouts. Its relative-abundance pattern, together with PICRUSt2-predicted analysis, suggested a possible competition with Salmonella. Overall, background microbiota influence Salmonella behavior in a context- and stage-dependent manner and should be considered when evaluating fresh produce safety interventions.PMID:42901677 | DOI:10.1016/j.fm.2026.105325