Combinations of selected non-thermal technologies and antimicrobials for microbial inactivation in a buffer system

A. Muñoz, I. Palgan, F. Noci, D. A. Cronin, D. J. Morgan, P. Whyte, J. G. Lyng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Inactivation of Escherichia coli and Listeria innocua by combinations of High Intensity Light Pulses (HILP), Ultrasound (US) and Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) and sub-lethal concentrations of nisin (2.5mg/L) or lactic acid (500mg/L) was investigated in two different buffer systems (pH 4 for E. coli and pH 7 for L. innocua). Individually, HILP (3.3J/cm 2), US (126s residence time, 500W, 40°C) and PEF (24kV/cm, 18Hz and 1μs of pulse width) did not induce a microbial reduction of greater than 2.7 or 3.6 log units, for L. innocua and E. coli, respectively. Combined treatment using HILP+PEF sufficiently inactivated E. coli without antimicrobial addition. The addition of either antimicrobial enhanced the effect of US+PEF for both E. coli and L. innocua. The addition of lactic acid enhanced the effect of HILP+US. For L. innocua the addition of nisin enhanced the effect of HILP+PEF. This confirms the potential of selected non-thermal technologies for microbial inactivation when combined with antimicrobials. Industrial relevance: The application of sublethal non-thermal processing and GRAS antimicrobial hurdle combinations has the potential to allow for the production of safe, stable products while also maintaining the desired organoleptic characteristics of a minimally processed product. An initial step to assessing the suitability of non thermal treatments is to evaluate their efficacy in model solutions prior to their study in food systems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)100-105
Number of pages6
JournalFood Research International
Volume47
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Antimicrobials
  • High intensity light pulses
  • Non-thermal preservation
  • Pulsed electric fields
  • Thermo-sonication

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