Biophysical Evaluation of Food Decontamination Effects on Tissue and Bacteria

A.Z. ANDERSEN; L. DUELUND; J. BREWER; P.K. NIELSEN; T. BIRK; K. GARDE; B. KALLIPOLITIS; N. KREBS; LUIS A. BAGATOLLI

FOOD BIOPHYSICS

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2011 vol. 6 p. 170 - 170

1557-1858

raditionally, the effects and efficiency of food surface decontamination processes, such as chlorine washing, radiation, or heating, have been evaluated by sensoric analysis and colony-forming unit (CFU) counts of surface swabs or carcass rinses. These methods suffice when determining probable consumer responses or meeting legislative contamination limits. However, in the often very costly, optimization process of a new method, more quantitative and unbiased results are invaluable. In this study, we employed a biophysical approach for the investigation of qualitative and quantitative changes in both food surface and bacteria upon surface decontamination by SonoSteam®. SonoSteam® is a recently developed method of food surface decontamination, which employs steam and ultrasound for effective heat transfer and short treatment times, resulting in significant reduction in surface bacteria. We employ differential scanning calorimetry, second harmonics generation imagin