Abstract
The processes of freezing and storing frozen foods submit microorganisms to stress that results in sublethal injury of the cell. This injury translates in inability of growth under circumstances in which the cells would normally grow as in the case of the addition of selective agents to the culture media to detect or enumerate a particular organism or group of organisms. The detection and enumeration procedures must therefore provide for cellular recovery from injury before cells are exposed to selective agents. Since standard methods of microbiological analysis of foods rarely provide for injury recovery, a modification of these methods in order to consider injured cells is coming of age. Results in the present research indicated that a modified procedure for the enumeration of coliforms in frozen "mofongo" involving a recovery step with Tryptic Soy Agar before adding Violet Red Bile Agar was superior to the conventional use of Violet Red Bile Agar alone. With Staphylococcus aureus, results indicated that the modified Most Probable Number technique using Tryptic Soy Broth with 10% NaCl and 1% pyruvate was superior to the conventional technique of Tryptic Soy Broth with 10% NaCl and Baird-Parker Medium. The marked superiority of Baird-Parker Medium described by many previous researchers was not observed in the study.