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Effect of environmental water activity on microbial inactivation by intense pulsed light (IPL)

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Abstract

In this study, the effect of environmental aw on microbial inactivation by intense pulsed light (IPL) was investigated. Three different microorganisms (Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria, and yeast) were used as test organisms. The effect of environmental aw was assessed by irradiating each microbial suspension in sodium chloride solutions with different environmental aw levels (0.99–0.80). As the aw decreased, the aggregation of intracellular material of cell interior was changed and the cell number was increased. However, there was no significant difference in microbial reduction according to the aw after the 0.23–3.05 J/cm2 of IPL treatment. It was confirmed that yeast had the highest resistance to IPL because of the differences in cell structure and cell wall components between yeast and bacteria. Additional research is needed to clearly understand the inactivation mechanism according to the type of microorganism by controlling aw using various solutes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, and Forestry through the High-Value-Added Food Technology Development Program, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (grant number 121025-3). The paper was also supported by RP-Grant 2022 of Ewha Womans University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 03760, South Korea

    Hee-Jeong Hwang, Jee-Woo Kim, Hye-Jae Choi & Myong-Soo Chung

  2. Graduate School of Hotel & Tourism, The University of Suwon, Gyeonggi, 18323, South Korea

    Jun-Bong Choi

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Hwang, HJ., Kim, JW., Choi, HJ. et al. Effect of environmental water activity on microbial inactivation by intense pulsed light (IPL). Food Sci Biotechnol 33, 485–490 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-023-01395-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-023-01395-x

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