Food could be made safer by surface decontamination with steamNovember 29, 1999Trials have been carried out using steam below, at, or above atmospheric pressure. As the pressure of the steam is increased, higher decontamination temperatures can be achieved. Comparative studies are also assessing the use of treatments with hot air, water immersion, infrared irradiation, ultraviolet (UV) light, microwaves, or ozone. Steam above atmospheric pressure has been used to decontaminate peppers, soft fruits, poultry and red meat. the effectiveness on meat was influenced by whether the tissue was lean of fatty. Steam at atmospheric pressure was used on lamb carcasses, red meat cuts, whole poultry and poultry portions, soft fruits, peppers, and herbs. Chilled soft fruits (raspberries and blackberries) were very successfully decontaminated. With heat-sensitive foods, decontamination may have to be carried out at temperatures lower than 100 degrees C. Decontamination treatments using sub-atmospheric steam were carried out on beef (lean and fat), poultry (with or without skin), paté, pig skin, peppers, apples and lettuce. There was a strong trend for the magnitude of bacterial reduction to increase with increasing steam temperature and exposure time. Significant reductions of Salmonella enteritidis counts were measured on skinless chicken after only 10 seconds of exposure to steam at 65 degrees C. Of the very promising steam treatment methods, use of steam at atmospheric pressure will likely be the easiest to transfer to industrial applications. The industrial-scale development of low-pressure and high-pressure steam treatments will be less easy to engineer, but could still have useful applications for smaller products. The decontamination of delicate foods, such as herbs and leafy vegetables, poses particular problems, as many of these foods are so fragile that steam and heat treatments are unacceptable. For these foods, non-thermal treatments such as ozone or UV light seem to offer the best potential. A recently completed project has indicated that substantial bacterial reductions can be achieved on vegetables and herbs, without inducing appreciable damage, by exposing the produce to high concentrations of gaseous ozone for relatively short periods of time. Ozone treatment successfully extended the shelf life of products such as tomatoes, peppers and parsley by as much as 2 days. PJ Barnes & Associates |
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| Related Ozone Current Events and Ozone News Articles Oceans' uptake of manmade carbon may be slowing The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Tiny bubbles clean oil from water Small amounts of oil leave a fluorescent sheen on polluted water. Oil sheen is hard to remove, even when the water is aerated with ozone or filtered through sand. A bubbling ball of gas The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing are the magnetic fields, the engines of it all. Nitrogen loss threatens desert plant life, study shows As the climate gets warmer, arid soils lose nitrogen as gas, reports a new Cornell study. That could lead to deserts with even less plant life than they sustain today, say the researchers. Researchers discover links between city walkability and air pollution exposure A new study compares neighborhoods' walkability (degree of ease for walking) with local levels of air pollution and finds that some neighborhoods might be good for walking, but have poor air quality. Interactions with aerosols boost warming potential of some gases For decades, climate scientists have worked to identify and measure key substances -- notably greenhouse gases and aerosol particles -- that affect Earth's climate. Report examines hidden costs of energy production and use A new report from the National Research Council examines and, when possible, estimates "hidden" costs of energy production and use -- such as the damage air pollution imposes on human health -- that are not reflected in market prices of coal, oil, other energy sources, or the electricity and gasoline produced from them. Air pollutants from abroad a growing concern, says new report Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents -- from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe -- and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council. U.S. needs nearly $200 million more on climate-related health research A recent commentary suggests that the U.S. should spend roughly $197 million more than it currently does to research the impact of climate change on public health. Ozone layer depletion levelling off By merging more than a decade of atmospheric data from European satellites, scientists have compiled a homogeneous long-term ozone record that allows them to monitor total ozone trends on a global scale - and the findings look promising. More Ozone Current Events and Ozone News Articles |
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