ABSTRACT
Although organic acids have for many years been proven to be effective under a wide variety of food processing conditions, there is increasing indication that some foodborne pathogens are intrinsically tolerant, whereas others are becoming tolerant to the organic acids. It may be possible that this tolerance is only true under particular circumstances, for example, exposure to organic acids at less than maximum concentration which provides the organism the opportunity to induce specic stress mechanisms that allow for resistance, and also resistance to more severe acidic conditions. Determining the efcacy of organic acids in specic applications will require a better understanding of the general and specic stress response potential of foodborne pathogens (Ricke, 2003).
