TY - JOUR

T1 - Effect of infrared heating on quality and microbial decontamination in paprika powder

AU - Staack, N.

AU - Ahrné, L.

AU - Borch, E.

AU - Knorr, D.

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - Infrared radiation (IR) was explored as a technique for decontaminating paprika powder. The effect of water activity (aw) and IR heat flux on paprika temperature and water loss were measured during near- or medium-IR heating. Paprika was evaluated in terms of colour, aw, natural flora, and inoculated Bacillus cereus spores. Surface temperatures were considerably higher than temperatures inside the powder, especially at low aw; greater differences were observed with medium- than with near-IR. Surface darkening was observed, though the overall colour was not considerably affected. IR effectively removed water from paprika, especially at aw 0.5 and 0.8, resulting in unsatisfactory spore reduction. However, at aw 0.8, the load of the natural flora was reduced (P < 0.05). In aw 0.96 powder, areas with high remaining aw displayed a reduction >6 log10 CFU/g for B. cereus (P < 0.05). In addition, no microbial counts of the natural background flora were observed in the paprika.

AB - Infrared radiation (IR) was explored as a technique for decontaminating paprika powder. The effect of water activity (aw) and IR heat flux on paprika temperature and water loss were measured during near- or medium-IR heating. Paprika was evaluated in terms of colour, aw, natural flora, and inoculated Bacillus cereus spores. Surface temperatures were considerably higher than temperatures inside the powder, especially at low aw; greater differences were observed with medium- than with near-IR. Surface darkening was observed, though the overall colour was not considerably affected. IR effectively removed water from paprika, especially at aw 0.5 and 0.8, resulting in unsatisfactory spore reduction. However, at aw 0.8, the load of the natural flora was reduced (P < 0.05). In aw 0.96 powder, areas with high remaining aw displayed a reduction >6 log10 CFU/g for B. cereus (P < 0.05). In addition, no microbial counts of the natural background flora were observed in the paprika.

KW - Bacillus cereus spores

KW - Colour

KW - Infrared radiation

KW - Paprika powder

KW - Water activity

U2 - 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.09.004

DO - 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.09.004

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:36249015464

VL - 86

SP - 17

EP - 24

JO - Journal of Food Engineering

JF - Journal of Food Engineering

SN - 0260-8774

IS - 1

ER -