The feasibility of intense light pulses (ILP) decontamination in meat industry. Doctoral Thesis - mr Igor B. TomaÅ¡eviÄ. A B S T R A C T. Food safety has become ...
The feasibility of intense light pulses (ILP) decontamination in meat industry Doctoral Thesis - mr Igor B. Tomašević
ABSTRACT
Food safety has become an essential priority for authorities and consumers worldwide, especially concerning perishable products such as those of animal origin. Considering meat as an excellent substrate for microbial growth, numbers of thermal and non-thermal decontamination and preservation methods have been developed in order to sustain its safety and quality. Investigating the feasibility of ILP decontamination in meat industry was the objective of this PhD research. The laboratory-scale batch-fed system generated 3.4 J/cm2 per pulse with duration of 300 μs for an input voltage of 3000 V was used. Two different doses (1 flash and 5 flashes) of ILP treatment were applied during the experiments. Meat color changes induced by ILP are diverse and depend on animal species, muscle type, meat product and ILP dose applied. Seafood was least affected regarding color by the treatment and application of ILP did not impair their quality. The use of ILP decontamination on the red, game and poultry meat would not significantly affect attributes perceived by the consumers on which they base a decision to purchase or consume them, as well. Cooked meat products obviously are not the substrate suitable for the ILP decontamination. Its application regarding meat products and sensory quality seems feasible only for the fermented meat products and with lower dose of the intense light pulses applied. ILP can be successfully applied both as preventive measure to avert the contamination originating from the food contact material, such as slicing knife, as well as the post contamination intervention measure on sliced fermented sausage. The ILP decontamination on a surface of a knife ranged from complete sterilization to different degrees of pasteurization effects depending on the time between contamination and ILP treatment, and fat content of the product that was sliced. For all sliced products, the sterilization effect was achieved with already only 1 light pulse if the time between contamination and ILP treatment was not longer than a minute. The treatment of the slices of fermented sausage showed confirmed importance of fast ILP intervention upon the contamination. Impact of ILP on the quality parameters of treated fermented sausage was investigating during 2months of storage at 4°C under vacuum and modified atmosphere (80% CO2 and 20% N2). We have not found indications that ILP treatment of 1 flash aditionaly promoted oxidation of lipids and proteins during storage. Keywords: intense light pulses (ILP), decontamination, meat, fermented sausage, lipid oxidation, protein oxidation, sensory quality.
