Food processors often use heat for pasteurization or sterilization to make food products safe by killing pathogens like salmonella and listeria, but high temperatures can degrade food quality. To ensure food safety, the industry sometimes relies on overly stringent standards that unnecessarily reduce food quality, said Jennifer Acuff, assistant professor of food microbiology and safety for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Focusing on low-moisture food products like powdered milk, Acuff and her team performed a study seeking a method that guarantees food safety while retaining the most vitamins, minerals and flavor depending on the food.
“This collaborative approach encompassed microbiology, engineering, and statistics to provide the food industry with what we believe will be a tool to improve safety without compromising quality of their dried food products,” Acuff said.
The process is not limited to low-moisture foods and may extend to other foods and processes, Acuff added.
Using data from a study on a harmless “surrogate” microorganism and a statistical technique called “bootstrapping,” the researchers developed a framework to provide food processors options within U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines.
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