Evaluation of High-Pressure Processing in Inactivation of the Hepatitis E Virus

Abstract

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes acute hepatitis with approximately 20 million cases per year globally. While HEV is endemic in certain regions of Asia, Africa and South America, it is considered an emerging foodborne pathogen in developed countries. Based on genetic diversity, HEV is classified into different genotypes, with genotype 3 (HEV-3) being most prevalent in Europe and North America. The transmission of HEV-3 has been shown to be zoonotic and mainly associated with the consumption of raw or undercooked pork products. Herein, we investigated the efficacy of high-pressure processing (HPP) in the inactivation of HEV-3 using a cell culture system. HPP has been indicated as a promising nonthermal pathogen inactivation strategy for treatment of certain high-risk food commodities, without any noticeable changes in their nature. For this purpose, we treated HEV-3 in media as well as in artificially inoculated pork pate, with different conditions of HPP: 400 MPa for 1 and 5 minutes, as well as 600 MPa for 1 and 5 minutes, at ambient temperature. In general, we observed approximately a 2-log reduction in HEV load by HPP treatments in media; however, similar treatment in the pork pate resulted in a much lower reduction in viral load. Therefore, the efficacy of HPP treatment in the inactivation of HEV-3 is matrix-dependent.\n\nImportanceHEV is an emerging foodborne pathogen in industrialized countries, and its transmission is associated with the consumption of contaminated undercooked pork product. In this work, we employed an infectivity assay to investigate the potential of high-pressure in inactivation of HEV in media and ready-to-eat pork pate. We demonstrated that the effect of HPP on inactivation of HEV depends on the surrounding matrix.