Bacterial spore inactivation by non-thermal technologies: resistance and inactivation mechanisms

Thermal processing remains the major technology in food industry while it inevitably destructs sensory, nutrition and functional ingredients of food. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in non-thermal process. Spores are the dormant state of vegetative cells and have unique multilayers structure. A lot of research focused on the inactivation of spores due to its extremely resistance. This review focused on the inactivation effects and mechanisms of spores by non-thermal processing. High-pressure processing inactivated spores by two step pathways. First moderate high pressure induced the germination of spores, and the resistance decreased rapidly. Then the germinated spores inactivated as followed. Some non-thermal techniques such as ultrasound and ultraviolet radiation had synergistic effects and were usually applied as hurdle technologies.

Automated summary

Thermal processing is the dominant technology in the food industry, but it can damage the sensory, nutritional, and functional components of food. Non-thermal processing techniques, especially those targeting spores, have gained increasing interest. Some non-thermal techniques such as ultrasound and ultraviolet radiation have synergistic effects and are commonly used as hurdle technologies.