Pulsed Light Treatment of Different Food Types with a Special Focus on Meat: A Critical Review

Abstract

Today, the increasing demand for minimally processed foods that are at the same moment nutritious, organoleptically satisfactory, and free from microbial hazards challenges the research and development to establish alternative methods to reduce the level of bacterial contamination. As one of the recent emerging nonthermal methods, pulsed light (PL) constitutes a technology for the fast, mild, and residue-free surface decontamination of food and food contact materials in the processing environment. Via high frequency, high intensity pulses of broad-spectrum light rich in the UV fraction, viable cells as well as spores are inactivated in a nonselective multi-target process that rapidly overwhelms cell functions and subsequently leads to cell death. This review provides specific information on the technology of pulsed light and its suitability for unpackaged and packaged meat and meat products as well as food contact materials like production surfaces, cutting tools, and packaging materials. The advantages, limitations, risks, and essential process criteria to work efficiently are illustrated and discussed with relation to implementation on industrial level and future aspects. Other issues addressed by this paper are the need to take care of the associated parameters such as alteration of the product and utilized packaging material to satisfy consumers and other stakeholders.

Non‐thermal technologies and its current and future application in the food industry: a review

“…. Basic essentials of the pulsed UV‐light technology comprise a power unit to generate high power electrical pulses, a treatment chamber to transform the light source to high‐power light pulses and a timing control and a trigger generator (Ozer & Demirci, ; Heinrich et al ., ).In currently, the United States allow the pulsed UV light technology to be applied in food processing and food packaging as an effective means to eliminate microorganisms in various types of foods (Palgan et al ., ; Heinrich et al ., ). Can et al .…”

Previous Homologous and Heterologous Stress Exposure Induces Tolerance Development to Pulsed Light in Listeria monocytogenes

“…The main germicidal action is, however, mainly restricted to the UV region of the light. When applying PL, it must be considered that the efficiency of the treatment is strongly influenced by the three main factors, namely the nature of the treated matrix (transparency or opacity, surface characteristics, and composition), microbial contamination (microorganism, physiological state, population density, and growth characteristics) and the process parameters (spectrum, geometry, and set up) chosen ( Dunn et al, 1989 ; Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 1996 ; Palmieri and Cacace, 2005 ; Wang et al, 2005 ; Heinrich et al, 2016 ).…”

“…So far, notable progress has been made in describing the inactivation of diverse microorganisms, including pathogens of current concern like Listeria monocytogenes , Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., and Campylobacter spp., in or on different food and food contact matrices and under various PL process conditions ( Heinrich et al, 2016 ). However, research concerning the possibility of the surviving microbial fractions to develop tolerance to the same (homologous) stress or cross-tolerance to or from different (heterologous) stresses commonly applied in food manufacturing (e.g., acid, heat, NaCl) is still in its early phase.…”

Pulsed light treatment in food

“…[13] The efficiency of PL treatment depends on number of flashes, voltage, lamps, range of lights, time, sample, and microorganism target. [17] Figure 1 shows a functional layout of a basic PL system. Palmieri [13] 3 Pulsed light treatments in food PL technology has been studied in the treatment of food, being effective in the sterilization of solid's and liquid's transparent surfaces using batch or continuous processing.…”