Thermal treatment is the most popular decontamination technique used in the dairy industry to ensure food protection and prolong shelf life. But it also causes nutrient and aroma degradation, non-enzymatic browning, and organoleptic changes of dairy products. Non-thermal solutions, on the other hand, have been extensively explored in a response to rising market demand for more sustainable and safe goods. For a long time, the use of ultraviolet (UV) light in the food industry has held great promise. Irradiation with shortwave UV light has excellent germicidal properties, which can destroy a variety of microbial pathogens (for example bacteria, fungi, molds, yeasts, and viruses), at low maintenance and installation costs with minimal use of energy to preserve food without undesirable effects of heat treatment. The purpose of this review is to update the studies made on the possibilities of UV-C radiation while also addressing the essential processing factors involved in the disinfection. It also sheds light on the promise of UV light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) as a microbial inactivation alternative to conventional UV lamps.

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Thermal treatment has always been the processing method of choice for food treatment in order to make it safe for consumption and to extend its shelf life. Over the past years non-thermal processing technologies are gaining momentum and they have been utilized especially as technological advancements have made upscaling and continuous treatment possible. Additionally, non-thermal treatments are usually environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, hence sustainable. On the other hand, challenges exist; initial cost of some non-thermal processes is high, the microbial inactivation needs to be continuously assessed and verified, application to both to solid and liquid foods is not always available, some organoleptic characteristics might be affected. The combination of thermal and non-thermal processing methods that will produce safe foods with minimal effect on nutrients and quality characteristics, while improving the environmental/energy fingerprint might be more plausible.

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The effect of ultraviolet C (UV-C) light technology on whey-brine inoculated with five different pathogens (or surrogates) was examined: Listeria innocua (NCTC 11288), Staphylococcus aureus (NCTC 6571), Bacillus cereus (NCTC 7464), Escherichia coli (NCTC 9001) and Salmonella enteritidis (NCTC6676). The most resistant microorganism was L. innocua, requiring a UV-C dosage of 320 J/L. The inactivation for the rest of the bacteria occurred at equal or less than 200 J/L dosage. The results from this study indicate that a continuous (UV-C) turbulent flow photo-purification processing system is a promising nonthermal processing method for the reduction of foodborne pathogens in turbid fluids (i.e. whey).