Several Aspects of Microbial Technology for Food Pasteurization and Sterilization

Abstract

The results obtained from our studies on several aspects of food pasteurization and sterilization by cross-talk between microbiology and technology were presented. First, we found that the thermal death of Escherichia coli was affected by rising temperature and pre-incubation processes and it was suggested that the phase transition and phase separation of membrane lipids were involved in these phenomena. Second, we analyzed the kinetics of bacterial death by a combined treatment of heating with antimicrobial compounds and we presented two distinct modes depending upon the type of chemicals. Third, new methods for process evaluation and prediction of pasteurization effects, including the growth-delay analysis, the cell motion analysis and the analysis with the fluorescence of green fluorescent protein variants expressed in bacterial cell were proposed. And finally, we constructed the database of thermal death of microorganisms based upon the data which have appeared in articles published in 30 major academic journals. Also, some predictive models on the thermal death of bacterial spores in a buffer and liquid foods were predicted as influenced by several factors such as pH, the sodium chloride concentration and heating temperature.