Evaluation of Non-Thermal Decontamination Processes to Have the Equivalence of Thermal Process in Raw Ground Chicken.

The present study was aimed at examining the antibacterial effects of non-thermal decontamination processes, which are equivalent to thermal treatment, to ensure microbiological safety of raw ground chicken. or were inoculated into 25 g of raw ground chicken samples. The raw ground chicken samples were non-treated or treated with high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) at 500 MPa (1-7 min), light-emitting diode (LED) irradiation at 405 nm wavelength (30-120 min), and heat at 70°C, 90°C (1-60 min), and 121°C (1-15 min). and cell counts were enumerated after treatments. Moreover, the color parameters of treated raw ground chicken were analyzed. HHP treatment reduced and cell counts by more than 5 Log CFU/g and more than 6 Log CFU/g after 7 min and 1 min, respectively; these effects were equivalent to those of thermal treatment. However, LED irradiation reduced cell counts by only 0.9 Log CFU/g after 90 min of treatment, and it did not reduce cell counts for 90 min. Compared with those of the non-treated samples, the Δ (total color difference) values of the samples treated with HHP were high, whereas the Δ values of the samples treated with LED irradiation were low (1.93-2.98). These results indicate that despite color change by HHP treatment, HHP treatment at 500 MPa could be used as a non-thermal decontamination process equivalent to thermal treatment.