Pulsed pressure treatment for inactivation of escherichia coli and listeria innocua in whole milk

E. coli and L. innocua in whole milk were subjected to continuous pressure treatments (300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550 and 600 MPa) at ambient temperature for 5, 10, 15 and 20 min. These treatments underlined that at moderate pressure values (300, 350 and 400 MPa), increasing the pressurization time from 5 to 20 min did not improve cell death to a great extent. Therefore, pulsed pressure treatments (at 300, 350 and 400 MPa) for 5 min (2.5 min x 2 pulses, 1 min x 5 pulses and 0.5 min x 10 pulses), 10 min (5 min x 2 pulses, 2 min x 5 pulses and 1 min x 10 pulses), 15 min (5 min x 3 pulses, 3 min x 5 pulses and 1.5 min x 10 pulses) and 20 min (10 min x 2 pulses, 5 min x 4 pulses, 4 min x 5 pulses and 2 min x 10 pulses) were applied. As already observed in continuous pressure experiments, in pulsed pressure treatments the inactivation level is improved with increasing pressure level and in addition with the number of applied pulses; however, the effect of pulse number is not additive. Results obtained in this study indicated that pulsed pressure treatments could be used to pasteurize the whole milk at lower pressure values than the continuous pressure treatments. Nevertheless, an optimization appears definetely necessary between the number of pulses and pressure levels to reach the desirable number of log-reduction of microorganisms