HURDLE TECHNOLOGIES: MICROBIAL INACTIVATION BY PULSED ELECTRIC

FIELDS DURING MILK PROCESSING

A Thesis
Presented to
The Faculty of Graduate Studies
of
The University of Guelph






by
OSCAR RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ




In partial fulfillment of requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy




December, 2010




Oscar Rodriguez Gonzalez, 2010
ABSTRACT

HURDLE TECHNOLOGIES: MICROBIAL INACTIVATION BY PULSED ELECTRIC
FIELDS DURING MILK PROCESSING

Oscar Rodriguez Gonzalez Advisor:
University of Guelph, 2010 Dr. Mansel W. Griffiths


The application of non-thermal processes pulsed electric fields (PEF) and cross-flow
micro-filtration (CFMF) continuous to be studied with the purpose of controlling
microorganisms in milk. Trends suggesting increased adoption include the study of
Food Safety Objectives as a safety criterion, the promotion of sustainable processing,
and the implementation of hurdle strategies. While the advance of gentle processing is
counteracted by the risk of enhanced resistance due to microbial stress response,
several techniques can be applied to quantitatively assess its impact. The objective of
this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of microbial inactivation by PEF and
CFMF at various steps of milk processing including shelf-life, its comparison with high
temperature short time (HTST) pasteurization, and the quantitative assessment of the
cross protection resistance to PEF of Escherichia coli O157:H7.
Some differences in mesophilics inactivation were observed in milks (fat contents
between 1.1% and 3.1%). Increasing the PEF inlet temperature decreased the
treatment time by three or two-fold. The combination of CFMF/PEF yielded similar
microbial reductions as CFMF/HTST. Higher inactivation of the coliforms was achieved
in homogenized cream (12% fat) compared to non-homogenized. The linear relation
between electrical conductivity and nutrient content (fat and solids content) was
established. In a parallel study the PEF/CFMF sequence resulted in higher inactivation
of mesophilics compared to CFMF/PEF and HTST. The shelf life was acceptable for
CFMF/PEF and HTST after 7 days, while enterics and psychrotrophs grew more after
PEF/CFMF, thermodurics did after HTST.
The growth and stress of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in lactose containing broths was
monitored by absorbance and fluorescence expression of stress reporters. Growth was
explained using a secondary model, and stress response using mechanistic and
probabilistic models. PEF inactivation was evaluated following the Weibull distribution
after the cells reached stationary phase or maximum fluorescence expression. Similar
resistances were observed within the cells grown in lactose broth at 10, 25 or 40C, as
within stressed cells (starved or cold shocked). Cells grown at 45 C were more
resistant compared to the cells grown in acid, high salt concentration while the ones
grown at cold temperatures were the weakest.
i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To all my colleagues, advisors, family, and friends for their support.
To the Dairy Farmers of Ontario and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council for their financial assistance.

ii

ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviation Significance
AA Acetic acid
ABS Absorbance
AIC Akaike information criterion
ANOVA Analysis of variance
ATCC American Type Culture Collection
ATP Adenosine triphosphate
BIC Bayesian information criterion
CFMF Cross-flow microfiltration
CFU Colony forming units
CIPEC Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation
ESL Extended shelf life
FIL-IDF International Dairy Federation
FSO Food safety objective
G/NG Growth/no growth
GFP Green fluorescence protein
GWP Global warming potential
HEST High electric field short time
HHP Hydrostatic high pressure
HPH High pressure homogenization
HPHT High pressure high temperature
iii

HSP Heat shock proteins
HTST High temperature short time
LA Lactic acid
LACB Lactose broth
LB Luria Berthani Broth, Miller
MF Microfiltration
MPN Most probable number
MSE Mean square errors
MTS Manothermosonication
NACMCF National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods
NF Nanofiltration
OD Optical density
PATS Pressure assisted thermal sterilization
PC Performance criterion
PEF Pulsed electric fields
PFN Pulse forming network
PI Process integration
PI Propidium iodide
PL Pulsed light
PO Performance objective
RFEF Radio frequency electric fields
RNA Ribonucleic acid
RO Reverse osmosis
iv

SEM Standard error of the mean
TAL Thin agar layer
TAMC Total aerobic mesophilic counts
TEBC Total enteric bacteria counts
TLABC Total lactic acid bacteria counts
TMP Trans-membrane potential
TMYC Total moulds and yeasts counts
TP Traditional pasteurization
TPC Total psychrotroph counts
TSB Tryptic soy broth
TSBL Tryptic soy broth with added lactose (0.5%)
TSC Total staphylococci counts
TTMC Total thermoduric mesophilic counts
TTPC Total thermoduric psychotroph counts
TTTC Total thermoduric thermophilic counts
UF Ultrafiltration
UHT Ultra high temperature
UTMP Uniform trans-membrane pressure
WeLL Weibullian-log logistic model

v

NOMENCLATURE

Symbol Significance units
a decay rate kV/mm
ABS absorbance -
A
f
Accuracy factor -
a
w
water activity
-
b number of bacteria at the end of time interval log CFU/ml
B number of bacteria at the beginning of time interval log CFU/ml
b inactivation rate !s
-1

b
E
regression coefficient for electric field -
b
t
regression coefficient for treatment time -
C storage capacity or charging capacitance F
Cp specific heat capacity kJ/kgC
c
r
cell radius m
ctrl non-transformed cells -
d electrode gap m
D
XC
decimal reduction time (at given temperature XC) s
E electric field strength kV/m
E
C0
critical value of E for 100% survival kV/mm
E
C00
critical E value constant
kV/mm
f repetition rate or frequency pulses per
second, Hz
f(t) density function -
vi

Fat fat fraction %
FSO food safety objective CFU/l
G generation time min, h
g rate constant -
gfp
UV
plasmid containing cells -
H
0
the initial level of the hazard CFU/l
I current signals A
i
Fat

intercept of relation between % fat and electrical
conductivity
%fat
i
Sol

intercept of relation between % solids and electrical
conductivity
%sol
k constant factor -
k (E,T
in
) inactivation constant, -
k
1,2,38
dimensionless empirical parameters -
log (N/N
0
) reduction in log survivor count -
m shape parameter -
!" mass flow rate kg/s
n number of pulses -
N the number of observations used in the calculation -
Obs observed -
P pressure Pa
p shape parameter -
pH pH h
-1
PO performance objective -
vii

Pre predicted -
q concentration of limiting substrate -
R response ratio -
r rate of response
-
R
C
PEF chamber resistance !
RFI relative fluorescence intensity -
S surviving fraction -
s
Fat

slope of relation between % fat and electrical
conductivity
S / m %fat
SFI specific fluorescence intensity -
Sol solids fraction %
s
Sol

slope of relation between % solids and electrical
conductivity
S / m %sol
t time s
T temperature C
t
c
the mean of the microbial population resistance s
T
c
temperature level of inactivation onset C
t
C0
critical value of t
t
for 100% survival s
T
in
inlet temperature C
TMP trans-membrane potential V
t
t
treatment time "s
U charging voltage kV
V Volume l
!" volumetric flow rate m
3
/h
viii

v rate of increase of the limiting substrate -
V
C
volume of PEF treatment chamber m
3

w total applied energy kJ
w
pl
specific energy per pulse kJ/pulse
w
sp
specific energy input kJ/kg, kJ/l
x microbial population log CFU/ml
! scale parameter -
" shape parameter -
! gamma function -
# pH parameter -
$P pressure rise Pa
$T temperature rise C
%
pump and motor efficiency, 0.85 for positive pumps, and
0.65 for efficient centrifugal pumps
-
& upper asymptote log CFU/ml
' electrical conductivity of the product S/m
( growth rate h
-1
(
max
maximum growth rate h
-1

) density kg/l
* maximum slope of the inactivation curve s
-1

+I
total (cumulative) increase of the hazard on a log scale
CFU/l
+R
the total (cumulative) reduction of the hazard on a log
scale
CFU/l
"
log time at which the maximum slope is reached
(position of the curve)
s
ix

!
w
pulse width s
!

Ratkowsky parameter C
-1
h
-1

!
angle between the electric field and the point of interest
in the membrane (cos ! = 1 at the poles)
-
" a form factor (3/2) for spherical cells -
# lower asymptote log CFU/ml
" lower asymptote log CFU/ml
$ temperature parameter -
" water activity parameter -


x


TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...i
ABBREVIATIONS.....ii
NOMENCLATURE.......v
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Non-thermal dairy processing ............................................................................... 1
1.1.1. Advances in critical milk processes ................................................................ 2
1.1.2. Microfiltration .................................................................................................. 5
1.1.3. Emerging technologies ................................................................................... 7
1.1.4. Regulatory status of pasteurization technologies .......................................... 11
1.1.5. Sustainable dairy processing ........................................................................ 14
1.2. Pulsed electric fields ........................................................................................... 17
1.3. Combined processes .......................................................................................... 25
1.3.1. Advanced combined processes .................................................................... 25
1.4. Microbial stress ................................................................................................... 28
1.4.1. Microbial stress responses ........................................................................... 29
1.4.2. Cross protection ............................................................................................ 31
1.4.3. Risks associated to PEF ............................................................................... 32
1.5. Microbial physiology and inactivation .................................................................. 32
1.5.1. Mechanism of action ..................................................................................... 36
1.6. Advances in microbial modeling .......................................................................... 37
1.6.1. Modeling growth ........................................................................................... 40
1.6.2. Modeling inactivation .................................................................................... 42

xi

1.7. Research needs .................................................................................................. 48
2. Factors affecting the inactivation of native bacteria in milk processed by pulsed
electric fields and cross-flow microfiltration ................................................................... 49
2.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 49
2.2. Materials and Methods ........................................................................................ 51
2.2.1. Conventional and alternative milk processing ............................................... 51
2.2.2. PEF treatment ............................................................................................... 52
2.2.3. Conventional heat treatment of milk ............................................................. 56
2.2.4. Microbiological Analysis ................................................................................ 56
2.2.5. Physico-chemical properties ......................................................................... 57
2.2.6. Statistical analysis ........................................................................................ 58
2.3. Results and Discussion ....................................................................................... 58
2.3.1. Bacteria reduction in PEF-treated milk of different fat contents .................... 58
2.3.2. Effect of the PEF inlet temperature on the reduction of microorganisms ...... 64
2.3.3. Milk processing with a combination of CFMF and PEF ................................. 68
2.3.4. Inactivation of native bacteria in cream by PEF ............................................ 71
2.3.5. Effect of processing on the physicochemical properties of milk .................... 75
2.4. Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 79
3. Microbial inactivation and shelf life comparison of cold hurdle processing with pulsed
electric fields and cross-flow microfiltration, and conventional thermal pasteurisation in
milk ................................................................................................................................ 81
3.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 81
3.2. Materials and methods ........................................................................................ 83
3.2.1. Milk preparation and analysis of microbial inactivation ................................. 83
3.2.2. Nonthermal processing with PEF .................................................................. 85
3.2.3. Nonthermal processing with CFMF ............................................................... 87

xii

3.2.4. Nonthermal hurdle processing ...................................................................... 87
3.2.5. Conventional heat pasteurisation .................................................................. 88
3.2.6. Microbiological shelf life ................................................................................ 88
3.2.7. Electrical conductivity and pH ....................................................................... 90
3.2.8. Statistical analysis ........................................................................................ 90
3.3. Results ................................................................................................................ 91
3.3.1. Microbial inactivation with PEF, CFMF, CFMF/PEF, PEF/CFMF, and TP .... 91
3.3.2. Microbial shelf stability of milk processed with PEF/CFMF and TP .............. 92
3.4. Discussion ........................................................................................................... 98
4. Resistance of temperature, pH, osmotic and starvation stress induced Escherichia
coli O157:H7 to pulsed electric fields in milk ............................................................... 104
4.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 104
4.2. Materials and Methods ...................................................................................... 106
4.2.1. Microorganism ............................................................................................ 106
4.2.2. Growth medium preparation ....................................................................... 107
4.2.3. Construction of stress reporters .................................................................. 108
4.2.4. Monitoring of the physiological state ........................................................... 109
4.2.5. PEF treatment ............................................................................................. 110
4.2.6. Microbial counts .......................................................................................... 111
4.2.7. Mathematical Analysis ................................................................................ 111
4.3. Results and discussion ..................................................................................... 115
4.3.1. Growth environment ................................................................................... 115
4.3.2. Stress response .......................................................................................... 118
4.3.3. Cross-protection to physical hurdles ........................................................... 121
4.4. Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 130

xiii

5. General conclusion .................................................................................................. 131
5.1. Applications and future research ....................................................................... 135
6. References .............................................................................................................. 137
7. Annex ...................................................................................................................... 176

xiv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1. Relative milk components and particles size. ................................................ 4
Figure 1-2. Cross-flow micro-filtration with uniform trans-membrane pressure. .............. 6
Figure 1-3. Block diagrams of pulse power systems and their pulse shapes. ............... 18
Figure 1-4. Types of treatment chambers. .................................................................... 22
Figure 1-5. Basic components of a high intensity pulsed electric field treatment system.
...................................................................................................................................... 23
Figure 1-6. Common types of microbial inactivation curves. ......................................... 44
Figure 2-1. Milk process sequence in conventional and alternative fluid milk processing
...................................................................................................................................... 53
Figure 2-2. Relation between electrical conductivity and fat or solids content ............... 77
Figure 3-1. Schematic drawing of the pulsed electric fields (PEF) treatment chamber
used for skim milk processing and sequence for combined processing of PEF with
cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF) .................................................................................. 84
Figure 4-1. Growth rates of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in various growth media, predicted
by the Cardinal and Ratkowski models. ...................................................................... 117
Figure 4-2. . Response ratios of Escherichia coli O157:H7 fluorescence gene promoters
fitted by mathematical models. .................................................................................... 120
Figure 4-3. Inactivation trends of Escherichia coli O157:H7 by pulsed electric fields
(PEF) processing after growth at challenging conditions and PEF treatment at 1.8
kV/mm and 20 Hz or following environmental stress and PEF treatment at 2.4 kV/mm
and 20 Hz. ................................................................................................................... 126

xv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2-1. Applied intensitites of high intensity pulsed electric fields and resulting
temperature profiles ...................................................................................................... 54
Table 2-2. Variation in microbial populations after pulsed electric fields (PEF) and high
temperature short time (HTST) processing of fluid milks ............................................... 60
Table 2-3. Effect of the pulsed electric fields inlet processing temperature on the
reduction of different bacteria groups in skim milk ........................................................ 65
Table 2-4. Reduction of microbial populations after processing of skim milk with cross-
flow microfiltration (CFMF) and pulsed electric fields (PEF) or high temperature short
time (HTST) pasteurization in a combined approach (CFMF/PEF; CFMF/HTST) ........ 69
Table 2-5. Effect of pulsed electric fields processing on different groups of native
bacteria in cream ........................................................................................................... 72
Table 2-6. Linear regression coefficients of the relation between fat or solids and
conductivity of milk fractions .......................................................................................... 76
Table 3-1. Comparison of reductions in total mesophilic aerobic counts in skim milk
obtained following pulsed electric fields (PEF), cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF),
thermal pasteurisation (TP); combined CFMF/PEF, and PEF/CFMF treatment ............ 94
Table 3-2. Microbial counts in skim milk before and after pulsed electric fields (PEF) and
cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF) hurdle treatment (PEF/CFMF) or thermal
pasteurisation (TP) during storage ................................................................................ 96
Table 4-1. Mathematical models used to analyze Escherichia coli O157:H7 during
stress induced growth and its resistance to subsequent pulsed electric field processing
in milk. ......................................................................................................................... 113
Table 4-2. Models goodness-of-fit (AIC, BIC and adjusted R
2
), and coefficients (R
max
, r,
t
i
, g, m), resulting from analysis of fluorescence response of Escherichia coli O157:H7
stress gene promoters after induced stress (starvation or cold-shock). ...................... 119
Table 4-3. Growth and stress conditions of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and its relative
resistance to pulsed electric fields (PEF). ................................................................... 122
Table 4-4. Weibull and Weibullian-log logistic (WeLL) inactivation parameters describing
Escherichia coli O157:H7 inactivation in milk by pulsed electric fields (PEF) processing.
.................................................................................................................................... 124

1


1. Introduction
1.1. Non-thermal dairy processing
Because it has been generally recognized that heat pasteurization does not
necessarily achieve commercial sterility (NACMCF 2006), and that excessive heat
treatment can be associated to other health risks resulting from the formation of toxic
substances, a group of technologies labeled non-thermal makes continuous advances
(Knorr and others 2007). In that regard, minimal processing of liquid foods creates
products with improved sensory and nutritional attributes due to the reduced thermal
impact (Walkling-Ribeiro and others 2010a). Parallel to the increase in milk production,
new pasteurization processes are being implemented in emerging markets. While the
application of ultra-high temperature (UHT) treatment of milk has increased because it
benefits the distribution chain due to its shelf stability, other technologies like ultra-
filtration (UF) have been introduced to satisfy consumer quality demands (FIL-IDF
2006).
Emerging technologies have the potential to improve the safety of dairy products,
and these have been the subject of several books and book chapters (e.g. Pereira and
Vicente 2010, Tewari and Juneja 2007, Sun 2005, Barbosa-Cnovas and others
2005a).
Based on the physics involved in their mode of operation, processes can be
grouped as those involving momentum, energy (heat) or mass transfer (Ibarz and
Barbosa-Cnovas 2003), or involving electro-thermal, electro-magnetic, and physical

2

mechanisms (FDA 2000). As quoted by McBee (1996), understanding the fundamental
physics of a process allows a better perspective of the operations, and probably reveals
unutilized forms of energy (See Annex 1 for an illustration of the processes related to
the electromagnetic spectrum).
1.1.1. Advances in critical milk processes
Milk is generally subjected to cream separation because of the tendency of the
fat globules to rise to the top of their container. Based on the principle of fat separation
by sedimentation forces, centrifugal separators are continuously being developed to
achieve separations 4500 times faster than gravity (Nielsen 2000). This technique has
been further developed to remove microorganisms in a process called bactofugation,
which consists of a centrifuge bowl with continuous discharge where milk flows through
distribution holes into disk stacks to be ejected as a heavy phase (transport liquid) and a
bacterially clarified product. This process results in a reduction in spores of up to 99.5%
when two phases are used in-line (Van den Berg 2001a).
The high fat fraction of the milk (cream) is usually subjected to a homogenization
process, where the fat globule diameter is decreased to delay the formation of a fat
layer during storage (Kessler 2002). High-pressure homogenizers (HPH) disrupt cells or
particles by passing the medium through an adjustable, restricted orifice discharge
valve. For the purpose of fat globule disruption, milk is homogenized in two stages using
pressures around 15 MPa followed by a lower pressure at the second stage. For
microbial cell disruption, pressures between 55 and 200 MPa are applied (Geciova and
others 2002).

3

A basic HPH unit consists of a positive displacement pump that forces the
suspension through the center of a valve seat and across the seat face. As the fluid
flows radially across the valve and strikes an impact ring, disruption results from tearing
apart the cell wall. Based on a similar principle a microfluidizer causes impaction of two
streams of suspension at high velocity against a stationary surface with the energy input
dissipated almost instantaneously at the point of impact. The operation is a function of
flow rate, disruption unit, and the backpressure. While researchers like Hayes and
others (2005) suggest that a significant microbial reduction can be achieved by HPH
(250 MPa and 45C), other investigators like Smiddy and others (2007) state that HPH
does not extend the shelf-life of milk, even when combined with relatively high
temperatures (250 MPa at 70C).
The low fat fraction (skimmed milk) can be further separated by membrane
processes, which are classified according to the particle size filtered as: microfiltration
(MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO). While the pore
sizes for MF are generally higher than 0.2 !m, and for UF between 3 and 300 nm, the
molecular weights of the molecules separated by RO range between 1000 and 5000
kDa and for NF between 100 to 500 kDa as they separate based on the solubility of the
components (Marcelo and Rizvi 2009). An illustration of the various particles commonly
found in milk is illustrated in Figure 1-1.



4


Figure 1-1. Relative milk components and particles size.
Adapted from Walstra and others (2006), CDR (2004), Kessler (2002), Nielsen (2000), and Jelen (1992).
10
3
10
2
10 1.0 0.1 10
-2
10
-3
10
-4
10
-3
10
7
10
6
10
3
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
10 1.0
arLlcle slze (m)
arLlcle slze
(ArmsLrongs)
Puman halr
?easL cells
8acLerla
laL globules
CloLh & depLh fllLers
Mlcro-
fllLraLlon
ulLra-fllLraLlon
nano-
fllLraLlon
Caseln
mlcelles
Moulds
vlruses
S. cells
LacLose
SalLs
8everse
Csmosls
WaLer
Whey
roLelns
ApproxlmaLe
welghL (ualLons)
vlslble Lo Lhe naked eye CpLlcal mlcroscopy LlecLron mlcroscopy
10
4
10
8
vlsuallzaLlon
10
2
10
3
10
3
Mllk
componenLs
Membrane
processes
Mlcroorganlsms
Screens & sLralners
vlLamlns Whey proLeln aggregaLes, cheese flnes
10
4
3 x 10
3
arLlcle characLerlsLlc lonlc Molecular Macromolecular Cellular + mlcroparLlculaLe

3

1.1.2. Microfiltration
As the design of membrane equipment advances, different approaches are being
taken to satisfy the processing needs. Membrane systems can be batch or continuous.
Continuous systems can be single-pass, plug-flow or multi-stage with recycling (Nielsen
2000). A further development to achieve higher permeation rates and minimum fouling
in a continuous system was the concept of cross flow microfiltration (CFMF). As
explained by Kessler (2002), it consists of applying a high tangential velocity in the
filtration module (high wall shear stress), a low trans-membrane pressure drop, and the
highest appropriate temperature (50-55C). By allowing a low and uniform trans-
membrane pressure (UTMP) of 30 to 40 kPa, rapid clogging and fouling could be
prevented and a 1 to 10 ratio between the retentate and permeate could be obtained
(Pedersen 1992). With this design, a stable flux level of at least 500 L/m
2
/h (normally
700 L/m
2
/h) for more than 6 hours can be achieved. An illustration of the CFMF with
UTMP membrane system is shown in Figure 1-2.
CFMF is applied in the dairy industry in three major areas: removal of bacteria,
whey defatting, and micellar casein enrichment of milk for cheese making (Marcelo and
Rizvi 2009). For the removal of microorganisms it has been shown that CFMF can
remove between 99.1 and 99.9% of the total population, 99.95% of Bacillus spores, and
98.4% of other bacterial spores with minimal changes in protein and dry matter
(Pedersen 1992).


6




Figure 1-2. Cross-flow micro-filtration with uniform trans-membrane pressure.
Adapted from Pedersen (1992).




Feed pump
Retentate
circulation
pump
Permeate
circulation
pump
3.6 Bar 4.0 Bar
1.8 Bar 2.2 Bar
1.4 !m
Skim milk
50"C
Retentate Permeate

7

Because the economics of UTMP are determined by the design that minimizes
the load of the pump on the permeate side, manufacturers like Tetra-Pak (Alfa-Laval)
offer modules that are entirely packed with plastic spherical particles of defined
parameters on the permeate side, while APV-CREPACO achieve the same objective by
adding more tubes wrapping individual membrane elements (Kessler 2002). The energy
consumed during a pressure-driven process can be calculated based on the operating
pressure even when it is only part of the total energy consumption. In cross-flow based
processes an important part of the energy consumed is at the recycling pumps that
continuously flush the membrane. This energy can be estimated based on Eq. 1-1
(Nielsen 2000).
! " #$% &'!( #) & *+( , Eq. 1-1
For comparison purposes, the energy consumption by the main four types of
cross flow separation processes has been estimated as follows (Nielsen 2000): 9 to 12
kWh/m
3
for micro-filtration (32.4 to 43.2 kJ/L), 2 to 5 kWh/m
3
for ultra-filtration (7.2 to
18.0 kJ/L), 4 to 6 kWh/m
3
for nano-filtration (14.4 to 21.6 kJ/L), and 5 to 10 kWh/m
3
for
reverse osmosis (18.0 to 36.0 kJ/L).
1.1.3. Emerging technologies
Pressures higher than HPH (up to 1000 MPa) can be applied in specially
designed equipment. This equipment can be categorized in two types: batch (solid
foods) and in-line (liquid foods). While in-line systems are more attractive for fluid milk
processing, the costs of high pressure processing can be five times higher than

8

conventional heat treatment, with the initial investment being 75-80% of the cost.
Another problem to solve is the cycle time, some semi-continuous systems save energy
and time by coupling vessels using the energy stored in a pressured one to pressurize a
second one (Van den Berg and others 2001b). As the research on high pressures,
especially the application of hydrostatic high pressure (HHP), advances beyond the
antimicrobial effects, attributes such as the preservation of the level of free fatty acids
related to decreased rancidity, the fat globule cold agglutination, and differences in
rennet coagulation after HHP represent exciting opportunities for the dairy industry
(Norton and Sun 2008). Also, since the structure of milk proteins can be modified by
HHP, research has been focused on the modification of the properties of foams,
emulsions and gels and the application in cheese production both prior to cheese
making and during ripening (Needs 2001).
Innovative electro-magnetic processes include ionizing radiation (x-rays, gamma
rays, and beta rays), thermal radiation (ultraviolet to infrared), magnetic fields, and the
application of electricity. Ionizing radiation was traditionally generated from radioactive
isotopes using nuclear reactors (Pillai and Braby 2007), but with the development of
linear accelerators its application and safety has been improved, and recently is more
similar to the electricity-based pasteurization equipment (AEB 2009a, Miller 2005). Its
application in the dairy industry includes package sterilization. Pulsed light technology
(PLT) is based on the application of electromagnetic radiation by means of waves at
different wavelengths (#), frequencies ($) and energy (E). The types of light include: UV
(# = 180-400 nm, subdivided into UVA = 315-400 nm, UVB = 280-315 nm, UVC = 180-
280 nm), visible light (# = 400-700 nm), and infrared rays (# = 700-1100 nm). Similar to

9

ionizing radiation a few applications have been developed specifically for dairy products.
UV light is a well-established technique applied for sterilizing packaging films; therefore,
its future is promising (Palmieri and Cacae 2005), and there is a project team
developing a prototype to assess the commercial viability of non-thermal UV processing
(Barnes 2009).
Radio-frequency is being explored for its beneficial non-thermal effects when
applied in the form of radio-frequency electric fields (RFEF) at higher voltages (%5
kV/cm) and lower frequencies (<18 MHz), for that purpose a process applying 3.0
kV/mm between 20 and 100 kHz has been developed to inactivate microorganisms. The
setup of RF is similar to pulsed electric fields (PEF) as they consist in moving a fluid
through two electrodes charged with an electric field, the difference is that the PEF
power supply is in the forms of pulses formed in a pulse-forming network (PFN), while in
RFEF the power supply continuously provides the high voltage making it a simpler
method. RFEF is claimed that it will require the same energy as PEF, and the two
technologies cost approximately twice that of conventional pasteurization (Geveke
2005). These two technologies (PEF and RFEF) are being studied in parallel by the US
Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Intervention Technologies Unit (USDA
2010).
An additional non-thermal technology that is advancing relatively slowly involves
the use of magnetic fields generated by superconducting coils that produce DC fields,
and is defined as a region of space in which a magnetic body is capable of magnetizing
the surrounding bodies (Barbosa-Cnovas and others 2005b, FDA 2000).

10

Electro-thermal processes are continuously being developed to optimize the
application of thermal treatments. This group of processes includes: infrared radiation,
hertzian waves (microwaves and radiofrequency), and ohmic heating. Infrared radiation
consists of transferring thermal energy in the form of electromagnetic waves as short
waves (0.7 to 2.0 !m), medium waves (2.0 to 4.0 !m), and long waves (0.004 to 1.0
mm), generated by a hot source like a quartz lamp, quartz tube or metal rod (Vicente
and Castro 2007). Hertzian waves include electromagnetic waves in the range between
150 kHz and 30 GHz and include microwaves applied at 915 or 2450 MHz, and RF at
13.56, 27.12, or 40.68 MHz (Tewari 2007, Orsat and Raghavan 2005). Ohmic heating is
generated by using an unrestricted frequency and waveform to generate heat due to the
electrical resistance of the foods (Vicente and Castro 2007). As these technologies are
improved, their advantage compared to traditional heating is that the heat is generated
at the molecular level resulting in instantaneous heating. While the processing time can
be reduced, thus increasing operational efficiency, the major cost is the initial
investment (Tewari 2007, Vicente and Castro 2007, Sumnu and Sahin 2005, Orsat and
Raghavan 2005).
As technologies that pursue commercial sterilization advance, established
concepts like UHT continue to be improved based on its two basic principles: 1) for the
same bacterial destruction a high-temperature short-time treatment results in less
chemical change than a low-temperature long-time treatment, and 2) minimum times
and temperatures are dictated by the need to inactivate thermophilic bacterial spores,
while the maximum times and temperatures are determined by the need to minimize
undesirable chemical reactions (Datta and Deeth 2007).

11

1.1.4. Regulatory status of pasteurization technologies
According to the Canada National Dairy Code (CFIS 2005) pasteurization is the
process of heating every particle of a dairy product in equipment that is designed and
operated to meet or exceed the required time and temperature relationships specified.
The minimum pasteurization requirements for milk based products (<10% fat) are 63 C
x 30 min (batch/vat) or 72 C x 15 s (HTST), for pr oducts with higher fat content or
sugar (>10%), the temperature requirements are higher (66 C x 30 min or 75 C x 15
s), as for frozen dairy product mixes time-temperature combinations of 69 C x 30 min,
83 C x 15 s or 80 C x 25 s are required. The Onta rio Milk Act Regulation 761 R.R.O.
1990 (OMAFRA 1990) states that skim milk and whey should be pasteurized at least at
69 C x 30 min, milk for the purpose of cheese maki ng at 62 C x 30 min, or 72 C x 16
s, and ice milk mix or ice cream mix by heating the mix to 69 C x 30 min or 80 C x 25
s, and cream to manufacture butter for 77 C x 10 min.
Initiatives such as the Guide to Energy Efficiency Opportunities in the Dairy
Processing Industry aim to assist in the identification of energy efficiency improvements
in dairy plants and the development and achievement of voluntary sector energy
efficiency targets. The Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation (CIPEC)
promotes new technologies relevant to energy/water efficiency including non-thermal
pasteurization methods including MF, HHP, PEF, and UV (Wardrop 1997).
In the United States milk safety is guided by the pasteurized milk ordinance (FDA
2009), and by definition pasteurization is the process of heating every particle of milk or
milk product in a properly designed and operated equipment to one of the required
temperatures (63 C x 30 min, 72 C x 15 s, 89 C x 1 s, 90 C x 0.5 s, 94 C x 0.1 s, 96

12

C x 0.05 s and 100 C x 0.001 s), with a requireme nt to increase the temperature by 3
C for milks with fat content higher than 10%. The International Dairy Federation (FIL-
IDF) defines pasteurization as a process applied to a product with the object of
minimizing possible health hazards arising from pathogenic microorganisms associated
with milk. This is generally achieved by applying a heat treatment, which results in
minimal chemical, physical and organoleptic changes to the product. Various
temperature and time combinations are used by the dairy industry including:
thermization, which requires heating at 63 to 65C for 15 to 20 seconds to maintain milk
quality at the plant pending final use; pasteurization to destroy pathogenic
microorganisms conducted at 63C x 30 minutes or 72 C x 15 s, and commercial
sterilization, which is achieved by heating to about 115C x 10-20 min, or %135C for a
few seconds (Cerf 1986).
Depending on the intensity of heat treatment, pasteurization can be low (i.e. 74
C x 15 s) and used to primarily kill most microorg anisms and some enzymes without
causing other changes, or high (i.e. 90 C x 15 s) and used to kill all vegetative
microorganisms, and inactivate most enzymes, but making some serum proteins
insoluble. Commercial sterilization is intended to kill all microorganisms, and all
enzymes, but chemical changes including browning reactions, and formation of formic
acid may occur. These changes can be minimized by heating at high temperatures for a
few seconds (Walstra and others 2006).
The term pasteurization has been revised and broadened by the National
Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF). While NACMCF
recognized that pasteurization does not necessarily achieve commercial sterility and

13

pasteurized foods must be frozen or refrigerated to preserve product quality, NACMCF
agreed to define pasteurization as follows: Any process, treatment, or combination
thereof that is applied to food to reduce the most resistant microorganism(s) of public
health significance to a level that is not likely to present a public health risk under
normal conditions of distribution and storage (NACMCF 2006). NACMCF also
recommend that regulatory agencies establish a Food Safety Objective (FSO) and/or a
performance standard for food pathogen combinations that can be used as the basis for
judging equivalency when a process is evaluated as an alternative to traditional
pasteurization. The FSO concept has been previously proposed by the International
Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF 2002), and its
application is currently being reviewed by a collaborative group facilitated by the
International Life Sciences Institute (Bourdichon and others 2009, Membr and others
2009).
The Performance Criterion (PC) could be defined as the effect on frequency
and/or concentration of a hazard in a food that must be achieved by the application of
one or more control measures to provide or contribute to a Performance Objective (PO)
or a FSO (NACMCF 2006). In milk a FSO can be considered as achieving a low
probability that a serving of milk contains a viable vegetative cell of a pathogen (e.g. < 1
cell per 1,000 servings), and a PC as a treatment sufficient to reduce the levels of C.
burnettii by greater than 6-log cycles (inactivation of greater than 100,000 guinea pig
infectious doses, assuming that each guinea pig infectious dose contains at least one,
or, more likely, more than one viable rickettsia). A PC can be defined by Eq. 1-2:

14

-
.
/ 01 2 03 4 567 Eq. 1-2
The future for regulatory acceptance of non-thermal technologies is promising.
Two of the leading authorities assessing the risk that novel technologies, such as PEF,
may present to public health are the European Food Safety Authority and the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration. Therefore, there is hope in the industrial sector that this
regulatory scrutiny will accelerate the commercialization of emerging technologies and
its products (Smith 2007).
1.1.5. Sustainable dairy processing
Because of the increasing public awareness of the environmental impact caused
by human activities, the dairy industry has taken the lead in analyzing the different
factors involved in the production of its goods. A recent publication of the International
Dairy Federation (FIL-IDF 2009) shows that a relatively large part of the environmental
impact occurs at the dairy farm; accounting for 1.0 of the global warming potential
(GWP) expressed as kg of CO
2
per kg of milk compared to 0.2 for all the other
manufacturing and distribution stages to the consumer. Among dairy products the
highest GWP is attributed to cheese, eight times higher than milk and yoghurt. The non-
renewable energy use at the dairy farm can be up to 1.5-times higher compared to all
other phases. For dairy products the lowest consumption of non-renewable energy is for
milk, followed by yoghurt, cream, cheese, butter, and milk powder.
Sustainable processing is highly related to efficient processing, and, therefore,
economics. Early analyses of the distribution in energy consumption in a typical milk
processing line were made by Miller (1986). In his review he states that 22.6% of the

13

electricity and 34.4% of the fuel were consumed at the pasteurization operation in the
manufacture of bottled milk. Pasteurization was the second highest operation in
electricity consumption after cold storage (40.9%), and also second in fuel consumption
after bottle washing (58%). It was estimated that, in total, 88 kJ/kg of fuel and 20 kJ/kg
of electrical energy were consumed in the manufacture of pasteurized bottled milk.
A more recent review of the pasteurized milk production process was conducted
by Nicol and others (2005), who observed that the energy consumption for pasteurized
milk production in a line that uses 13 MPa for homogenization and 90% regeneration at
the heat exchanger consumed a total of 133.6 kJ/L of thermal energy and 11.5 kJ/L of
electrical energy per hour in a 24,000 L/h processing plant. The energy consumption
can be decreased with higher heat exchanger regeneration efficiency or partial
homogenization.
As the design of dairy processing equipment advances, the study of heat
recovery systems at the dairy plant is being expanded to the transfer of heat between
operations by applying a technique called process integration (PI) or pinch analysis, and
consists of analyzing energy uses in the whole process rather than a unit operation. The
issues to be considered when conducting this analysis are: type of process (batch or
continuous), contamination avoidance, fouling, and compatibility with existing equipment
(Hanneman and Robertson 2005).
In a modern milk production line and in advanced heat pasteurization equipment
the regeneration section is used to pre-heat the milk for separation and homogenization
prior to pasteurization (Muir and Tamime 2001). A thermal pasteurization cycle can be
summarized as 5-65-75-15-5 C, needing a pre-heatin g and post-cooling of 10C only, a

16

PEF treatment can be applied as: 5-35-50-5 C; cons equently, it needs a pre-heating of
30C and post-cooling of 45C making regeneration n ot feasible (Hoogland and de
Haan 2007).
As reviewed by Toepfl and others (2006) there is a potential to apply PEF for
environmentally friendly and energy efficient processing, the strategies analyzed can be
related to dairy processing in the sense that the pasteurization of liquid food can be
improved by achieving a sufficient reduction of microbes with low energy consumption
by combining PEF with mild heat, and the waste water treatment can be improved by
disintegrating excess sludge and destroying cells to release intracellular material to be
utilized to initiate biodegradation and autolysis of cells. Therefore, new technologies
have a niche in sustainable food processing, as individual techniques like RFEF and
PEF are compared by their energy usage (Geveke 2005).
Non-thermal processes are finding their niche in sustainable dairy processing
with UV technology being studied for its potential to cut demand for steam needed for
pasteurization (ICUSD 2009) as part of the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Initiative (ICUSD
2008). Electron beams are being used as an alternative for package sterilization in
extended shelf-life (ESL) milk. For example, milk produced by Dairy Stix Ltd (UK) is
packed using a Form-Fill-Seal process sterilized with this technology, which is claimed
to have a supply chain and economic advantage compared to similar products like the
traditional hydrogen peroxide treatment (AEB 2009ab).


17

1.2. Pulsed electric fields
Fundamentally pulsed electric field technology consists of delivering an electric
field in pulses to a food medium. To generate a high voltage of pulsed electrical field of
several kV/cm within food, a large flux of electrical current must flow through a piece of
food in a treatment chamber for a very short period of time (Zhang and others 1995).
The high voltage power supply for the system can be either an ordinary source of direct
current or a capacitor charging power supply with inputs of high frequency alternating
current (AC).
Pulses are formed by the pulse-forming network (PFN), which consists of one or
more power supplies with the ability to charge voltages (up to 60 kV), switches (ignitron,
thyratron, tetrode, spark gap, semiconductors), capacitors (0.1-10 !F), inductors (30
!H), resistors (2 & 10M&), and a treatment chamber (Barbosa-Cnovas and
Altunakar 2006). A simple PFN is a resistance-capacitance circuit in which a power
supply charges a capacitor that can deliver its stored energy to a resistive load
(treatment chamber) by activation of a switch. The energy storage capacitor (C
0
)
determines the total power of the system, the resistor the limiting charging current, and
the discharge switch determines the repetition rate (Figure 1-3). A simple PFN (Figure
1-2A) generates exponential decay pulses, whereas a more complex PFN can deliver
square wave pulses, bipolar pulses, or instantaneous reversal pulses. A PFN forming
square wave pulse requires matching impedance, which can be difficult to realize in
practice. An example with three capacitor-inductor units is illustrated in Figure 1-2B
(Barbosa-Cnovas and Altunakar 2006, Zhang and others 1995).



"
#


Figure 1-3. Block diagrams of pulse power systems and their pulse shapes.
Adapted from: DeHaan (2007), Barbosa-Cnovas and Altunakar (2006), Toepfl (2006), Heinz and others (2002), Zhang and others (1995).

Treatment
Chamber
Power
Supply
Energy
Storage
Capacitor
(C
O
)
Charging
Resistor
(R
s
)
Discharge
Switch
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
k
V
)
time (!s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
k
V
)
time (!s)
Treatment
Chamber
Bipolar
Bipolar
Exponential
decay
Square
wave
A
B
C
O
C
O
C
O
R
O
L L
Inductor
(L)

19

The most important parameter influencing microbial inactivation is electric field
strength (E), as pore formation occurs when the threshold value of the membrane
potential is surpassed (Toepfl 2006). E can be calculated based on Eq. 1-3 (Ho and
Mittal 2000). The minimum E is influenced by cell size and orientation and limited by the
dielectric strength of the material (Heinz and others 2002, Ho and Mittal 2000).
Treatment intensity is influenced by the number of pulses and treatment time, which can
be calculated using Eq. 1-4 as in Ho and Mittal (2000) and Walkling-Ribeiro (2008).
8 " 9 : , Eq. 1-3
;
<
" = & >
?
Eq. 1-4
Of the two types of pulse waveforms (exponential decay and square wave)
exponential is the least efficient (Figure 1-3) as the exposure time is determined as the
time required for a reduction of the electric field to 37% of its initial peak strength (Zhang
and others 1995) with an excess of heat dissipated without electroporation (Walkling-
Ribeiro 2008). Bipolar pulses are more effective than monopolar because repeated
polarity causes alteration in the direction of charges inside and outside the cell
membrane, thus creating a mechanical oscillation and therefore membrane breakdown
(Walkling-Ribeiro 2008). In batch chambers the pulses per volume are better defined
than for continuous flow where the average number is considered, but it is also
important to consider the chamber geometry as sections where the electric field differs
can be found at the treatment zone (Toepfl 2006).
Specific energy input has been suggested as intensity parameter, and the energy
dissipated per pulse can be estimated based on voltage and current signals determined

20

close to the electrodes, assuming an adiabatic system for all the waveforms as in Eq. 1-
5 (Jaeger and others 2009, Aronsson and others 2005, Picart and others 2002).
@ " 9 & 3 & ;
<
Eq. 1-5
For exponential decay pulses, specific energy input can be estimated based on
the energy stored at the capacitor (Eq. 1-6), taking into consideration that there are
electricity losses in the PFN and cables that need to be taken into account (Toepfl 2006,
Ho and Mittal 2000, Zhang and others 1995).
@
AB
" ##9
C
&D( E , ( & F & G% Eq. 1-6
For exponential decay and square wave pulses specific energy (w
sp
) can be
calculated based on measured media conductivity and electric field strength (Eq. 1-7).
@
AB
" #F G% , (
H
#I#J( & 8#;(
C
(:;
K
.
Eq. 1-7
Also, the effective energy per pulse (w
pl
) can be predicted from the temperature
increase assuming adiabatic conditions using Eq. 1-8 (El-Hag and Jayaram 2006, Heinz
and others 2002, Ho and Mittal 2000):
'J " L@
BM
& =N LO & P &D
B
N Q Eq. 1-8
Treatment chambers have been fabricated with different geometries and can be
categorized as depending on the direction of the electric field and the liquid food flow.
The simplest form is the cross-field design (Figure 1-4) where the electric field moves
across the electrode gap (H in Figure 1-4) allowing an extension in volume at the width

21

of the chamber (W) and length (L) of the electrodes. This design is applied to
electroporate cells in the laboratory in batches. In continuous systems liquid food can be
treated as they flow through electrodes in a co-axial or co-field design (Van den Bosch
2007). While cross-field chambers provide the most uniform electric field, treatment is
reduced in boundary regions, especially in batches without mixing, and affects the
microbial inactivation kinetics. In continuous chambers this non-uniformity can be
prevented by adding multiple treatment zones (Toepfl 2006).
Based on the principles reviewed above, a PEF processing system can be built
by adding other components including a pump, a control and monitoring system (an
oscilloscope), a pre-treatment heating/cooling chamber, a post-treatment cooling
chamber and a temperature monitoring system (Barbosa-Cnovas and Altunakar 2006,
Heinz and others 2003) as in Figure 1-5.
Several authors have reviewed the application of PEF to milk processing
(Sobrino-L'pez and Martn-Belloso 2009, Sampedro and others 2005). The milk
micronutrients that have been studied for their variation after PEF treatment are vitamin
content (B1: thiamine, B2: riboflavin, D: cholecalciferol, and E: tocopherol), ascorbic
acid, vitamin A, with approximately 90% of the ascorbic acid present in milk retained
after PEF and the rest remained unaltered at electric fields between 1.8 and 2.7 kV/mm
(Deeth and others 2007). It has also been observed that the macronutrients, including
fat content and protein integrity, are unaffected at field strengths as high as 80 kV/cm
(Deeth and others 2007). The most common physicochemical properties that remain
unchanged are pH, and titratable acidity. Color, moisture and particle size are other
quality aspects that remain unaltered.



"
"


Figure 1-4. Types of treatment chambers.
Adapted from Mastwiijk and others (2007), van den Bosh (2007), Barbosa-Canovas and Altunakar (2006), and Zhang and others (1995).
Anode
Cathode
H
L
W
Cross-field
Parallel Plate
Food Electrode
Co-Axial
Batch
Insulator
L
R
L
R
Co-linear
(Co-Field)
Continuous
+
+
+



"
#


Figure 1-5. Basic components of a high intensity pulsed electric field treatment system.
Adapted from Barbosa-Cnovas and Altunakar (2006), and Heinz and others (2003).
Product
Inlet
T
In, 1
F T
In, 2
Treatment
Chamber
High Voltage Pulse
Generating System
T
Max
T
Out
Control and Monitoring
System
Product
Outlet
Pump
Heating/
Cooling
Chamber
(optional)
Cooling
Chamber

24

Enzymes are used to monitor milk pasteurization as their sensitivity to heat
varies and can be predicted (Griffiths 1986). The efficacy of HTST pasteurization can be
checked by the inactivation of alkaline phosphatase and pasteurization at higher
temperatures (> 80 C) by lactoperoxidase (Walstra and others 2006). Because of this,
studies have been conducted on alkaline phosphatase with inactivation up to 59% in
raw milk at an electric field of 2.2 kV/mm (Castro and others 2001). Other enzymes, for
example, plasmin, peroxidase, microbial proteases and lipases, have also been studied
(Elez-Martnez and others 2007, Sampedro and others 2005).
Studies in products prepared with PEF-treated milk like cheese and yogurt have
concluded that they were similar to those that had been heat-treated and had a good
acceptability (Sobrino-L'pez and Martn-Belloso 2009, Sampedro and others 2005).
The application of PEF in cheese production has been studied by Seplveda-Ahumada
and others (2000), who PEF-treated milk to manufacture cheddar cheese. They
observed that some flavors of the cheese produced from PEF-treated milk were better
than cheese made with pasteurized milk at 63C for 30 minutes. Also, hardness and
springiness increased in the cheese made from PEF-treated milk while the other
textural attributes (adhesiveness and cohesiveness) remained the same.
The mechanism of cell inactivation by PEF is reviewed in section 1.6, and the
mathematical models applied to predict inactivation are reviewed in section 1.7.


23

1.3. Combined processes
As encompassed by the hurdle technology concept, the use of an intelligent mix
of hurdles can improve the microbial stability, safety, sensory, nutritional quality and
economic aspects of foods (Leistner and Gould 2002). While initially hurdle technology
was aimed to improve microbial quality and safety of foods, the next step included
sensory and nutritional quality in the optimization of processing. As reviewed by Leistner
and Gould (2002), new approaches include: sustainable processing, predictive
modeling, barriers to food (i.e. packaging), and medical approaches (human natural
barriers, and defense mechanisms) to hurdle technology. In developed countries the
objective is to minimally process foods, while in developing ones the aim is to keep
products stable and tasty without refrigeration (Leistner 2000).
As microorganisms have been subjected to a combination of hurdles that have a
different spectrum of antimicrobial action (multitarget preservation), it has been noticed
that some combinations can have a synergistic, additive, or antagonistic effect (Lee
2004, Raso and Barbosa-Cnovas 2003). While more than 77 hurdles have been
recognized for foods and can be classified as physical, physicochemical,
microbiologically and miscellaneous hurdles (Leistner 2002, Leistner 1995), the use of
combinations is limited by the desired attributes of the final product.
1.3.1. Advanced combined processes
Successful combinations of physical hurdles that have been patented are mano-
thermo-sonication (MTS), the bactocatch system, and high-pressure thermal
sterilization.

26

MTS was patented by the University of Zaragoza as a procedure for the
destruction of microorganisms and enzymes under controlled conditions of pressure,
heat and ultrasound. The process is continuous and the temperature can be increased
to nearly 105C to inactivate the most resistant mi croorganisms (Ordoez Pereda and
others 1994).
The TetraPak patented Bactocatch process, consists of removing the cream from
the milk by centrifugation to then be passed through a 1.4 !m pore size membrane
where 99.99% bacterial reduction can be achieved at 50C with UTMP of 50 kPa and a
cross flow velocity of 7.2 m/s, while the retentate and cream go to a UHT treatment
(115C to 130C for 4 to 6 seconds) and then are co mbined with the nearly bacteria-free
skim milk (Marcelo and Rizvi 2009). Also, the CFMF process has advanced in parallel
with the progress in membrane science. In addition to cross-flow microfiltration, dynamic
filtration has been also proposed to be incorporated in the processing sequence (Holm
and others 1989, Degen and others 1995).
A method has been described to sterilize low acid foods by combining ultra-high
pressure and pre-heating to raise the temperature sterilization conditions, to take
advantage of the adiabatic temperature resulting from hydrostatic pressure. High
pressure-high temperature (HPHT) treatments include pressures up to 600 MPa and
temperatures between 90 and 130C, while in pressur e assisted thermal sterilization
(PATS) the pressure can be raised to 1000 MPa (Wilmarante and Farid 2008, Barbosa-
Cnovas and Juliano 2008, Farid 2009, Wilson and Baker 2000). Continuous HHP
systems, where the food is moved through an open-end tube while a high pressure

27

pump maintains the pressure difference at 100 MPa or more, have also been combined
with PEF (Van den Berg and others 2001b).
Similar to HHP several studies have demonstrated that the lethality of PEF can
be enhanced with increases in temperature (Jaeger and others 2009, Amiali and others
2007, Alvarez and Heinz 2007, Bazhal and others 2006, Heinz and others 2003, Smith
and others 2002, Reina and others 1998, Jayaram and others 1991). Therefore, a
treatment called high electric field short time (HEST) has been proposed by Sampedro
and others (2007) that incorporates PEF in the lines of HTST treatment. The idea is to
reduce the consumption of PEF energy to warm up the product initially. Advanced
systems that are based on this approach include that used by Seplveda and others
(2005) that recovers the heat produced in the treatment chamber from the outgoing milk
stream, and incorporate it into the incoming milk stream by using a tube-in-tube heat
exchanger to increase the temperature to around 50 C (for a maximum temperature of
65 C for 15 seconds). This factor is also consider ed when analyzing the economic
aspects of scale-up (Hoogland and de Haan 2007). The drawback of this proposition
has been that the temperature may rise to high levels due to the ohmic heating resulting
from the PEF, and it could potentially damage the product (Alvarez and Heinz 2007),
therefore the product needs to be cooled quickly and the conditions properly controlled.
From a technical perspective PEF is one of the most flexible technologies to be
combined with other hurdles. It has been successfully combined with ultrasound,
thermo-sonication and hydrostatic high pressure (Ross and others 2003, Raso and
Barbosa-Cnovas 2003). Its combination with other technologies to enhance processing
performance has also been explored, as in electrically enhanced microfiltration, which

28

consists of applying an electric field to the membrane with the purpose of preventing
fouling. The process has been called cross-flow electro-filtration (Wakeman 1998,
Visvanathan and Ben Aim 1989).

1.4. Microbial stress
As hurdle technology seeks to achieve microbial inactivation based on the
concepts of metabolic exhaustion (as microorganisms use their repair mechanisms to
overcome their hostile environment they spend energy and die), and multi-target
preservation (the perturbation of different targets within the microbial cells in one hit),
the risk of increased microbial resistance while applying minimal processing exists
(Leistner 2000).
As bacteria respond to stresses they may become more resistant or even more
virulent, thus the need to understand these microbial responses. As the meaning of the
word stress varies depending on the context, in the study of biology it is applied to the
imposition of detrimental nutritional conditions, toxic chemicals, or physical conditions
(Yousef and Courtney 2003). The common stresses that microorganisms encounter in
the food-processing environment include various chemicals (acid and alkaline
treatments, ozone, phosphate and others chemicals), sanitizers (chlorine and
chlorinated compounds, non-chlorinated compounds), metal ions, antibiotics, and others
like starvation and osmotic and oxidative stress (Ravishankar and Juneja 2003). Other
hurdles that have been analyzed because of their potential induction of stress

29

resistance include freezing, dehydration, HHP, PEF, and irradiation (Juneja and Novak
2003).
1.4.1. Microbial stress responses
Because of the potential risk of unfavorable microbial stress response, studies
have focused on how microorganisms sense and respond to mild stresses, especially
pathogenic microbes like E. coli and L. monocytogenes, which may respond with
increased virulence (Hill and others 2002).
At the molecular level, microorganisms like E. coli have developed transduction
systems to sense environmental stresses and to control the expression of genes
involved in defense mechanisms. By using these adaptive networks microorganisms
modify their environments and/or survive the stress condition (Chung and others 2006).
A common regulatory mechanism involves the modification of sigma (() factors,
whose primary role is to bind to core RNA polymerase granting promoter specificity, and
they are the most extensively studied because of their various functions. They fall into a
number of categories including: the main housekeeping ( factor (responsible for the
transcription of the majority of the promoters), and alternate ( factors that have different
specificities like the expression of regulons involved in heat-shock response,
chemotactic response, sporulation, and general stress response (Abee and Wouters
1999). In E. coli, as with other other enteric bacteria, (
S
(RpoS) is the master regulator
of the general stress response (Chung and others 2006).
Based on the growing knowledge of microbial stress response regulation
processes, several approaches have been taken to monitor changes at the molecular

30

level including the detection of stress response genes (using molecular probes), mRNA
analysis (Northern analysis, microarray-genome-wide expression or reverse
transcription polymerase chain reaction), the detection of stress proteins (using gel
electrophoresis or antibodies), or biosensors (Yousef and Courtney 2003). Quantitative
methods to monitor changes in relative stress resistance will be discussed below.
Heat shock proteins (HSP) can be monitored in real time by constructing
biosensors that report the induction of genes related to their synthesis (Zhang and
Griffiths 2003). Microbial biosensors are basically analytical devices that combine a
biological sensing element with a transducer (energy converter) to produce a signal
proportional to the concentration of the chemical of interest. For that purpose
microorganisms have been integrated with a variety of transducers like: amperometric,
potentiometric, calorimetric, conductimetric, colorimetric, luminescence and
fluorescence (Lei and others 2006). While stress response can be monitored
quantitatively by measuring the stress conditions, and variation in inactivation trends
based on the population growth, other methods like biosensors can contribute to the
development of mechanistic models where the stress factor can be considered
(Gawande and Griffiths 2005ab). In addition to monitoring stress response the
application of biosensors vary widely, from understanding mechanism of action to
internalization studies (Jablasone and others 2005, Kumar and others 2006).
Quantitatively it has been demonstrated that exposure to sub-lethal levels of a
stress causes an increased resistance to levels of the same stress that were lethal
under normal conditions. For example, Farber and Brown (1990) heat shocked L.
monocytogenes at 40, 44, 48 and 52 C observing that prior stres s for up to 120 min at

31

48 C was needed to double or triple the D
64C
values. Murano and Pierson (1992) heat-
shocked E. coli O157:H7 (32 C to 45 C for up to 15 minutes) caus ing resistance to a
higher temperature treatment (55 C). Juneja and ot hers (1998) observed a lag period
(increase of 4 to 6 min) in the inactivation of E. coli O157:H7 at 60 C when it was
previously exposed to heat shock (46 C) in a beef gravy system.
1.4.2. Cross protection
The concept of stress adaptation resulting from increased resistance due to non-
related stresses (heterologous) is called cross-protection (Ravishankar and Juneja
2003). The term was initially proposed by Lou and Yousef (1996), who observed an
increase in heat resistance (D
56C
) in L. monocytogenes at several growth phases,
following exposure to starvation, acid treatment, hydrogen peroxide (H
2
O
2
), and ethanol.
Subsequent studies such as the work of Ryu and Beuchat (1998) showed that
acid adaptation and shock (pHs down to 3.8) induced resistance to heat treatments at
52 C to 54 C. Zhang and Griffiths (2003) observed that starvation (37 C to 5 C) of E.
coli O157:H7 induced heat resistance at 52 C and Gawan de and Griffiths (2005b)
observed increased cryotolerance (-18 C) due to st arvation stress. Depending on the
treatment conditions and hurdle applied, injury may result instead of protection; for
example, Garca and others (2005) observed an initial resistance due to acid shock (pH
4.0 in citrate buffer) and an increase in inactivation by PEF (after 2 h at pH 4.0) in gram
negative microorganisms. For a complete review see Rodrguez-Romo and Yousef
(2005).

32

1.4.3. Risks associated to PEF
Little research has analyzed the risks of adaptation responses due to PEF. An
unusual risk related to the application of PEF is the possibility of transferring
extracellular DNA material that, once incorporated in more resistant microorganisms,
may confer pathogenic traits. In an assessment of pulsing non-electrocompetent and
electrocompetent Lactobacillus casei in buffer containing the plasmid pIA)8 that carries
chloramphenicol resistance, it was found that there was no transfer between cells that
were not pre-conditioned for electroporation, therefore the risk of cross-transformation
may be low (Rodrigo and others 2007).

1.5. Microbial physiology and inactivation
As mentioned before, the concept of stress is broad, and includes moderate
stresses, extreme stresses, and severe stresses that may cause injury or death (Yousef
and Courtney 2003). The study of injury leads to a review of the concepts of viability
and culturability, as microorganisms can be non-viable (but virulent) for a period of time
and then recover.
Traditional methods to count microbes are based on cultivating microbes, which
is limited to the ability of microbes to reproduce. Therefore, the terminology surrounding
viability varies and has been reviewed by Barer and Hardwood (1999). The application
of novel methods to assess physiological states that may not be observed by
conventional techniques represents progress in the microbial analysis field.

33

Liquid media continue to be developed as part of injury recovery protocols, and
highly selective enrichment methods continue to advance. For example, in the case of
L. monocytogenes a broth named Pennsylvania State University broth has been
optimized, and applied successfully in the recovery of HHP injured L. monocytogenes
(Bull and others 2005). The most probable number technique (MPN), based on the
statistical analysis of the probabilities of microbial growth in liquid media placed in
multiple tubes, increases the sensitivity of the estimations to around < 5CFU/g
(Davidson and others 2004), and has been applied to increase the spread plate
detection below 25 CFU/ml when enumerating E. coli O157:H7 after pulsing apple juice
and apple cider with light (PL) (Sauer and Moraru 2009). MPN has been applied in
combination with the pour plate technique by Elwell and Barbano (2006) to analyze the
low total counts in CFMF processed milk. One weakness of this method is that it
requires large volumes of broth (100 to 500 ml) in order to increase the detection limit.
By using automated methods like the Bioscreen, which measures optical density
(OD) continuously in 200 wells, the recovery of populations in liquid media has also
been demonstrated in work such as that of Stephens and others (1997) who generated
growth curves of heat injured Salmonella, and applied the MPN technique to estimate
their inoculum level. The MPN method was also automated by placing the dilutions in
96-well microtitre plates (200 !L/well). An advanced version of the 3-tube or 5-tube
MPN method is the completely mechanized, automated and hands-off TEMPO from
bioMerieux in which the operator only needs to make a 1:10 dilution of the food or
water, which, after connection to the 48 chamber card, is incubated overnight and a

34

fluorescent signal proportional to the number of cells present is automatically read
(Fung 2009).
Modifications to solid media techniques include the thin agar layer method (TAL)
evaluated by Kang and Fung (1999) in L. monocytogenes and by Wu and Fung (2001)
in E. coli O157:H7, L. monocytogenes, S. Typhimurium, and S. aureus, to recover heat
injured cells, consists of recovering the injured microbial population in non-selective
media temporarily and adding selective media to recover the target population.
Garca and others (2006) monitored injury in E. coli after applying PEF by adding
sodium chloride (4%) to Nutrient Agar, or incubating in peptone water containing sodium
azide (500 !g/ml) chloramphenicol (100 !g/ml), rifampicin (10 !g/ml), cerulenin (70
!g/ml) or penicillin G (100 !g/ml) for 2 hours prior to plating on Nutrient Agar.
Cytometry is a process for measuring the physical and chemical characteristics
of biological cells. Cytometry principles are applied in the dairy industry in the form of
direct microscopic count, direct epifluorescent filter technique, and the Bactoscan
technique (Suhren and others 1990). The most highly developed technique is flow
cytometry, which is composed of a light source, a flow chamber, an optical system, light
detectors and a computer system (Ormerod 2008 and Shapiro 2003).
While flow cytometry is a standard method to assess milk quality in developed
countries, several studies related to dairy products have been conducted based on its
principles ranging from the detection of L. monocytogenes by means of
immunofluorescence (Donnelly and others 1986, Donnelly and others 1988), monitoring
the injury caused by bacteriocins in L. monocytogenes (Swarts and others 1998),
enumeration of total bacteria (Gunasekera and others 2000), gene expression of non-

33

culturable E. coli and Pseudomonas putida after pasteurization (Gunasekera and others
2002), the application of fluorescence-in-situ-hybridization to detect E. coli (Gunasekera
2003), detection of respiring E. coli O157:H7 (Yamaguchi and others 2003), gram
differentiation of a mixture of microorganisms (Holm and Jespersen 2003), and to
characterize the microflora of milk (Holm and others 2004ab).
Milk is difficult to study because of its high content of macromolecules (especially
fat and proteins) that make it opaque. For that reason, clarification protocols, including
savinase (EC 3.4.21.52), and Triton X-100 to remove the fat, and the enzymes
proteinase K (EC 3.4.21.52), and subtilisin (EC 232-752-2) to digest the protein
(Gunasekera 2000, Yamaguchi and others 2003) have been employed.
An advantage of flow cytometry over related methods is the ability to sort target
populations for further analysis, the physiological states of these clusters can be
characterized in medium as shown by Nebe-von Caron and others (1998). The
physiological stages that can be monitored by this technique range from the
reproduction of the cells (cell division), metabolic activity (enzyme activity, esterase,
dehydrogenase, membrane potential and pump activity), membrane integrity (selective
membrane permeability, exclusion membrane), and membrane permeability in dead
cells (Nebe-von Caron and others 1998).
The principle of using fluorescent dyes with the ability to permeate membranes
has been applied to study the mechanism of action of novel processes such as HHP.
For example, Ulmer and others (2000) studied cell viability and sublethal injury by
measuring the uptake of the membrane-damaged permeable dye propidium iodide (PI)
using a spectrafluorimetric microtiter plate reader after HHP treatment of Lactobacillus

36

plantarum in model beer. In a subsequent study, the permeability of L. plantarum in
model beer after PEF was determined (Ulmer and others 2002). This application has
been extended to the measurement of membrane damage and viability with the
nucleotide-binding dyes PI and SYTO 9 by PEF in Lactobacillus leichmannii, L.
monocytogenes, and E. coli O157:H7 using a spectrofluorimeter combined with
fluorescence microscopy (Unal and others 2002). Flow cytometry and PI permeability
has been applied by Wouters and others (2001b) to study membrane damage of
exponential and stationary phase cells of L. plantarum. Recently Aronsson and others
(2005), studied membrane permeability by PI, and cell content leakage (ATP) by means
of luminescence. Garca and others (2007) utilized a spectrofluorophotometer to
monitor PI intake by two gram negative (E. coli and Salmonella Senftenberg) and two
gram positive (L. plantarum and L. monocytogenes) bacteria and related it to the
intensity of PEF treatment. As stated by Saulis and others (2007), advancement in
these methodologies is leading to a better understanding of the detailed molecular
membrane processes of electroporation occurring in the cells that will result in more
robust kinetic models to predict these mechanisms.
1.5.1. Mechanism of action
It is known that electric pulses can produce micropores in cell membranes in an
effect called electroporation. At non-lethal intensity levels the phenomenon is called
reversible electrical breakdown as cells can reseal their pores. Reversible electrical
breakdown is of importance to genetic engineering and cell hybridization (Jayaram
2000).

37

There are two schools of thought regarding the electrical membrane breakdown
phenomenon. In the classical electromechanical models the membrane is considered
as a homogeneous bulk elastic layer, which under an external electrical field is stressed
by a compressive force that creates a restoring electric strain. When a critical trans-
membrane voltage at which electric compression exceeds the electric strain is reached
rupture occurs. These models do not consider the proteins between the lipid bilayer or
ionic channels that cross the membrane. From a chemical perspective membrane
rupture is due to an imbalance in molecular/ionic concentration resulting from charge
transport across the membrane where the membrane rupture occurs as a secondary
process. With the increase of trans-membrane voltage, temporary aqueous pathways
across the membrane are believed to appear (Jayaram 2000).
Electroporation can be divided into three main stages: 1) initial stage (within ns to
ms): with the creation of pores when an electric pulse is applied, 2) evolution of the pore
population (ns to ms): change in number of pores and their sizes during an electric
treatment, 3) post-treatment stage (ms to h): cell death or return to its initial viable state
due to pore resealing. Theoretical models to explain the mechanisms of pore formation
have been developed (Saulis and Wouters 2007).

1.6. Advances in microbial modeling
In terms of food safety, engineering integrates microbial modeling with process
modeling. While modeling the physics of a process can be relatively simple, as it is
governed by physical and chemical laws, modeling a biological system can represent

38

special challenges. It is important to emphasize that the ultimate purpose of processing
models is to optimize system performance; microbial models are developed to ensure
that a microbial pathogen population does not exceed a certain level (Marks 2008).
Microbial physiology, functional genomics, molecular biology and mathematical
modeling can also help to identify molecule types of living systems in terms of their
individual properties, while the emerging field of systems biology can help us to
understand the functional properties of the system as a whole. Although advances in
some areas, like comparative genomics, can help to define the genes and molecules
that help microorganisms to survive environmental stresses, the progress in single-cell
analysis techniques (i.e. flow cytometry) help to correctly analyze genetic and
physiological characteristics that can be related to the whole population (Brul and
Westerhoff 2007).
A model is a combination of descriptions, mathematical functions or equations,
and specific starting conditions, and can be in either of two classes: descriptive or
explanatory. Descriptive models (black box, observational, empirical or inductive) are
data-driven, and approaches like polynomial functions, artificial neural nets and principal
component analysis are used to classify the data. Explanatory models (white box,
mechanistic or deductive) relate the data to fundamental scientific principles, or at least
to measurable physiological processes (McKellar and Lu 2004a).
Microbial growth or survival can be modeled using two basic approaches, by
considering the effect at the single cell level (stochastic or vitalistic) or at the population
level (deterministic or mechanistic). The vitalistic approach is based on the assumption
that individuals in a population are not identical, while the central dogma of the

39

mechanistic approach is that the destruction is an orderly time process presenting a
close analogy to a chemical reaction (Mathys 2008, Baranyi and Pin 2004).
Researchers are constantly trying to unify models to better describe microbial events
with smooth transitions between growth and inactivation. Therefore advanced models
based on population dynamics considering events at the cellular level continuos to be
studied and developed (Peleg 2006, Corradini and others 2010).
Traditionally investigators working on mechanistic models rely on the fact that
these models are capable of accurately predicting the microbial inactivation response to
thermal treatment conditions outside the range in which experimental data is obtained.
Process engineers have designed ultra-high temperature (UHT) or high temperature
short-time (HTST) and pasteurization processes that operate at higher temperatures
based on this extrapolation capability (Teixeira 2007).
Microbial models can be also classified as: primary models that describe how the
number of microorganisms in a population changes with time under specific conditions,
secondary models that relate the primary model parameters to environmental or intrinsic
variables, or tertiary that combine primary and secondary models with a computer
interface providing a complete prediction tool (Marks 2008).
As reviewed by Griffiths (1994), predictive microbiology in the dairy industry has
been mainly applied in the estimation of microbial growth during storage (growth in raw
and pasteurized milk) and thermal processing (inactivation of microorganisms and
enzymes). In milk pasteurization the areas of focus include thermal inactivation models
for key enzymes and pathogens, and whole line risk assessment (McKellar 2003).


40

1.6.1. Modeling growth
Microorganisms multiply when exposed to favorable environments. Vegetative
bacterial cells, yeasts and molds reproduce in a process called transverse binary
fission, or simply binary fission. In this process a cell divides asexually into two cells
with each cell becoming a replica of the original cell (Ray 2004).
After inoculation in fresh medium a population remains temporarily with no
division, but may be growing in volume or mass, synthesizing enzymes, proteins and
increasing metabolic activity in what is called the lag phase. In the laboratory a growing
bacterial population doubles at regular intervals by geometric progression: 2
0
, 2
1
, 2
2
,
2
3
2
n
, where n = the number of generations in what is called exponential growth. The
generation time is the time interval required for the cells to divide, and can be expressed
mathematically as in Eq. 1-9 (Todar 2008).
R " ; = , Eq. 1-9
The number of bacteria at the end of the time interval, and can be predicted
using Eq. 1-10.
S " T & E
U
Eq. 1-10
In the context of hurdle technology growth/no growth (G/NG) or boundary models
are useful to determine the intrinsic and extrinsic environmental factors of the food
product that determine the growth during distribution, storage or consumer use or abuse
(Leistner 2002). G/NG models continuously advance in parallel to new food
preservation techniques and the understanding of physiological processes (McMeekin

41

and others 2000) with the goal to determine the borderline conditions that prevent
growth of a given microorganism without inactivation intervention. Automated equipment
that detects growth allows quantification once a threshold value of the measured
response is clearly greater than the noise seen over time at no growth conditions
(Legan and others 2002).
As mentioned above (section 1.5), media for assessing microbial recovery can
be both liquid and solid, with solid media preferred to enumerate individual cells based
on the formation of colonies (FIL-IDF 1990). Because the construction of models using
viable count data is time consuming and expensive, researchers are constantly
exploring rapid methods to accumulate sufficient data for modeling. One of the simplest
methods to monitor growth is optical density with instruments like the Bioscreen
(McKellar and Knight 2000). Turbidimetric data can also be collected using microplates,
or simple spectrophotometry in tubes or cuvettes (Dalgaard and Koutsoumanis 2001).
Thus, there has been a trend to model growth based on turbidimetric measurements
(Dalgaard and others 1994). Several models have been evaluated to determine growth
rates and lag times including: the non-transformed four-parameter logistic model, the
Richards model, the modified Gompertz model and the exponential model (Dalgaard
and Koutsoumanis 2001).
Because of the availability of computational tools like the Microsoft Excel add-
on DMFit (Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK), the preferred method to analyze
growth curves is the one of Baranyi and others (1993). The model is continuously being
developed by including physiological parameters (Baranyi and Pin 1994), and

42

comparing with other models (Baranyi and others 1999) based on their bias and
accuracy. The model in its simplest form can be expressed by Eq. 1-11.
V#;( " V
.
& W
#X
YZ[
&<(
Eq. 1-11
Other primary models that have been used to describe microbial growth in time
include the Logistic, Gompertz, Weibull, Hills and McKellar models (Lpez and others
2004, McKellar and Lu 2004b), and are reviewed in Chapter 4.
Growth curve parameters like lag phase or time to detection (t
d
), and maximum
growth rate (!
max
) considering pH, and water activity (a
w
), have been determined for E.
coli after PEF treatment by Aronsson and others (2004). The secondary models applied
to describe the variation of these parameters with respect to environmental conditions
(i.e. temperature, pH, water activity, and other factors like % CO
2
) include the following
types: square-root, gamma, cardinal, Arrhenius type, polynomial and artificial networks
(Ross and Dalgaard 2004). As they are applied to experimental data the models are
continuously adapted to better describe microbial growth conditions.
1.6.2. Modeling inactivation
As research on microbial inactivation progresses it is constantly reported that
when analyzing microbial populations that are subjected to a lethal treatment for a
period of time a variety of patterns result from the relation between the surviving
microbial populations and time. These patterns can be described as follows: tailing
pattern, increase in population due to spore activation, a shoulder or lag prior to
inactivation, or a sigmoidal pattern with both a lag and a tail (Marks 2008). Geeraerd

43

and others (2005) categorized the inactivation curves as log-linear, log-linear with
shoulder and/or tailing, Weibull type, and biphasic models to present the Microsoft
Excel add-in GInaFit (Bioprocess Technology and Control, Leuven Katholieke
Universiteit. Leuven, Belgium) to predict inactivation curves. An illustration of the
common types is depicted in Fig. 6.
In order to explain the kinetics of microbial inactivation by PEF it is important to
consider the factors affecting the mechanism of action. As reviewed before, it is
generally known that microbial membranes that electrically insulate an electrical field
produce an accumulation of charges with opposite polarity on either side of the
structure, and pore formation occurs when a certain threshold value of electric field (E)
is exceeded (Heinz and others 2002). A trans-membrane potential (TMP) of at least 1 V
(E = 2.5 kV/mm) is needed to achieve irreversible pore formation (Ho and Mittal 2000),
and can be explained by solving Maxwells equation in spherical coordinates assuming
simplifying restrictions as illustrated in Eq. 1-12 (Heinz and others 2002, Ho and Mittal
2000, Fox 2007).
\]^ " _ & ` & a
b
& acd f Eq. 1-12
From this knowledge it can be deduced that E and treatment time are important
factors to consider when describing microbial inactivation kinetics. By applying simple
kinetics the Bigelow model (Eq. 1-13) has been used to describe thermal inactivation
(Fernndez and others 1999).
ghi6 " /; j , Eq. 1-13



"
"


Figure 1-6. Common types of microbial inactivation curves.
Adapted from Marks (2008), Geeraerd and others (2005).
#
$
L
o
g
1
0
(
N
)
L
o
g
1
0
(
N
)
linear
time
time
biphasic
linear with shoulder
concave
sigmoidal
linear with tailing
convex
biphasic with shoulder

43

The first attempts to describe the kinetics of inactivation by PEF were made by
H*lsheger and others (1981). They described PEF inactivation separately based on
electric field value (Eq. 1-14), and treatment time (Eq. 1-15), and combined both
parameters in a simplified model (Eq. 1-16).
kl m " /n
o
& kl#` /`
p.
( Eq. 1-14
kl m " /n
q
& kl#r r
p.
, ( Eq. 1-15
m " #rsr
p.
(
t#oto
uv
( w ,
Eq. 1-16
Peleg (1995) described the inactivation based on Fermis equation as described
in Eqs. 1-17 and 1-18.
`
p.
#l( " `
p.
v
& x
t#w
y
&z(
Eq. 1-17
{#l( " {
.
& x
t#w
|
&z(
Eq. 1-18
The Weibull distribution (Eq. 1-19), which is a two parameter model based in a
distribution of probabilities, has been further developed to describe microbial
inactivation kinetics (Fernndez and others 1999, Peleg and Cole 2000, Couvert and
others 2005).
kl m#r( " /#r } , (
~
Eq. 1-19
With the scale and shape parameters, a density function can be generated using
Eq. 1-20, and a mean time value (t
c
) can be calculated with Eq. 1-21. The mean time

46

value is an indicator of microbial resistance and can be used to compare
microorganisms or processing conditions.
F#;( "
t
& & #;
t
( & W
Lt#<

N
Eq. 1-20
r

" } & # 2
t
( Eq. 1-21
The variations in the scale (b) and shape parameters (n) of the Weibull model
have been further developed to include food composition. For example, Rodrigo and
others (2003) developed a model to quantify the effect of carrot juice addition to orange
juice on the inactivation of E. coli. In a later study by Garca and others (2005a) the n
values were related to E and pH, and the variation was explained by a fitting of the
Gompertz equation.
As the b value represents the time necessary to inactivate 0.434 log
10
cycles and
the n parameter accounts for concavity of the survival curve, Alvarez and others (2003)
suggested that a z
PEF
value can be calculated from the relation between the b values
(from the primary modeling of inactivation with time) and E. In their study, they found no
influence from E and n. The z
PEF
value has been used to compare Salmonella
Enteritidis (Alvarez and others 2003) and Staphylococcus aureus (Rodrguez-Calleja
and others 2006) strains.
Assuming a symmetric curve the log-logistic model (Eq. 1-22) described by Cole
and others (1993), has been applied by Raso and others (2000) to predict the
inactivation of S. Senftenberg by PEF.
/kc 6 " L 2 # /(N L 2W
#&&#t<( #t( , (
N Q Eq. 1-22

47

These models (Bigelow, H*lsheger, Gompertz, Peleg and Weibull), have been
compared by various authors (Rodrigo and others 2001, Sampedro and others 2006)
with the Weibull having a better accuracy factor in the first study, and the H*lsheger,
and Weibull having lower Mean Square Errors (MSE) than the Bigelow in the second
one.
Because of the integrative characteristic of the PEF energy parameter, a trend to
relate microbial inactivation to the PEF energy applied was initiated by Heinz and others
1999, who related field strength settings and pulsing time based on energy levels and
concluded that a minimum of 0.4 kJ/kg per pulse were needed to inactivate Bacillus
subtilis. Subsequent studies like that of Alvarez and others (2003) with L.
monocytogenes, substitute treatment time by specific energy, which was then included
in the Weibull distribution model. In a related study, the energy efficiency of apple juice
pasteurization by pulsed electric fields and temperature was estimated by Heinz and
others (2003). By studying the relation between microbial inactivation and applied
energy to the treatment temperature and further modeling the inactivation rate and
temperature, a log-linear function was generated (Eqs. 1-23, and 1-24).
#8 J
U
( "
W
L
y
#
|
&(#

&z#

((N L#

&(L

&
|
NL

&

N#

&z#

((#

&z#

((
|
N Q
Eq. 1-23
kc#
.
, ( " /#` \
z
( &

Eq. 1-24
When evaluating models, the accuracy of the predictions can be determined by
considering the accuracy factor as in Eq. 1-25 (Fernndez and others 1999).

48

-
"
0
,

Eq. 1-25
Secondary models include the surface response design applied by Sobrino-
Lpez and Martn-Belloso (2008), where the influence of nisin dose, lysozyme dose,
PEF treatment time, and pH on the inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus were
modeled.

1.7. Research needs
As PEF is a flexible technology that can be combined with other existing
processes (like microfiltration), promising combinations can be explored for further
development.
As milk processing has adopted various strategies for the control of
microorganisms from farm to table, the exploration of the inactivation of various
microbial groups could guide dairy processors in the alternative use of the PEF
technology.
The quantitative description of changes in microbial populations at the molecular
level by applying the principles of spectrophotometry, and fluorescence detection of
biosensors or permeable dyes can contribute to the safe design of alternative microbial
processes that include the risk of protective effects of the growing in extreme
environments on microbial resistance.

49

2. Factors affecting the inactivation of native bacteria in milk processed by pulsed
electric fields and cross-flow microfiltration
2.1. Introduction
To control of microorganisms naturally present in milk the dairy industry depends
on heat treatment and cold preservation. Standards like the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance
serve as the reference in which time-temperature combinations for pasteurization of
products with different composition is described together with other guidelines (FDA
2009). It is generally recognized that heat pasteurization does not ensure commercial
sterility (NACMCF 2006) and an excessive heat treatment can be associated with other
health risks (e.g. formation of acrylamide, heterocyclic aromatic amines, or furans)
resulting from the formation of toxic substances (DFG 2007). Ross and others (2003)
and Raso and Barbosa-Cnovas (2003) reviewed the combination of existing non-
thermal technologies to enhance microbial inactivation in food without damaging its
quality. Among these technologies, pulsed electric fields (PEF) have been used as an
alternative to thermal treatment in order to reduce microbial loads in milk (Michalac and
others 2003, Fernndez-Molina and others 2005, Barbosa-Cnovas and Bermdez-
Aguirre 2010). In addition to its ability to inactivate microorganisms, Brans and others
(2004) reported that high intensity PEF treatment has also been applied to prevent
migration of charged components to the membrane surface during cross-flow
microfiltration (CFMF).
Because PEF is effective when applied with moderate temperatures (Toepfl and
others 2006, Walkling-Ribeiro and others 2010), a process called high electric field short
time (HEST) treatment was proposed by Sampedro and others (2007), and consists in

30

the application of PEF in conjunction with high temperature short time (HTST) treatment
as a pre-heating step. Recent studies have explored hurdle processing of milk with PEF
and other processing technologies, for example, Walkling-Ribeiro and others (2009)
combined PEF with heat as a subsequent process, Noci and others (2009) combined
PEF with thermosonication, and Smith and others (2002) combined PEF with moderate
heat and antimicrobial agents, such as nisin and lysozyme.
Due to the variety of processing and product parameters which affect the
application of PEF, reviews by Sampedro and others (2005), and Sobrino-Lpez and
Martn-Belloso (2009) suggested that different approaches are necessary to analyze the
effect of milk nutrients on the effectiveness of pulsed electric fields for milk processing
and preservation. Processing conditions (i.e. electric field strength, pulse number, pulse
width, treatment time and processing temperatures), microbial analysis (i.e.
microorganisms and methodology), and the complexity of the food system (i.e.
characteristics of milk products) were identified as main factors determining the overall
efficacy of PEF treatment of milk.
Cross flow of skim milk through a filter with a pore size ranging between 0.8 and
1.4 !m under uniform trans-membrane pressure is the basis for CFMF (Gsan-Guiziou,
2010). Up to 99.7% of the bacteria can be reduced in skim milk with a CFMF system
(Pedersen 1992). Further development led to the Bactocatch system, consisting of a
centrifugal unit for cream separation, a microfiltration unit to separate vegetative cells
and spores, and an ultra-high-temperature component for the processing of the cream-
retentate mixture (Kessler 2002).

31

The objective of this study was the evaluation of the impact of a PEF system at
different steps of milk processing for the reduction of the microbial load in milk with
different fat levels. Moreover, the impact of CFMF applied prior to PEF treatment, and
the effects of cream homogenization were investigated as well as the correlation
between the fat and solids content and electrical conductivity at the different stages of
milk processing.

2.2. Materials and Methods
2.2.1. Conventional and alternative milk processing
The sequences of conventional and alternative processing of milk used are
shown in Figure 2-1. Conventional processing of milk was carried out with raw milk
obtained from the Elora-Posonby Dairy Research Station, University of Guelph and
stored at 4C. Raw milk was pre-heated in a pilot s cale, dual stage heat exchanger unit
to 50C (UHT/HTSTLab-25EDH, Micro-Thermics, Raleigh , NC, USA) prior to separation
(Westfalia LWA 205, Centrico Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA) of skim milk and cream at
flow rates of 180 and 18 L/h, respectively. Subsequently, the milk was standardized by
mixing the appropriate volumes of cream and skim milk to three final fat contents (1.1%,
2.0%, 3.1%). Homogenization (NS2006H, GEA NiroSoavi S.p.A, Hudson, WI, USA) was
conducted at two pressure stages of 20 MPa (first stage) and 5 MPa (second stage), a
processing frequency of 15 Hz and initial flow rates of 120 L/h inlet, and 60 L/h outlet in
order to achieve a minimum stuffing pressure of 0.4 MPa. The homogenization process
was combined with the heat exchanger, which was also used at this processing stage to

32

pre-heat milk, which exited the homogenizer at 12C, to 50C. By contrast, in an
alternative processing sequence separated skim milk was passed through a CFMF pilot
plant system (MFS-1, TetraPak, Aarhus, Denmark) with a membrane pore size of 1.4
!m at temperatures of 35C with respective inlet and outlet pressures of 90 (at 120 L/h),
and 20 kPa (at 12 L/h). The skim milk CFMF retentate was transferred in aseptic
containers for PEF processing. In the other stream, standardized cream (12%) was
exposed to a pasteurization treatment with PEF after homogenization under the same
conditions described above. Both processing approaches were concluded with PEF or
HTST milk pasteurization under the processing conditions described below.
2.2.2. PEF treatment
For non-thermal processing of standardized milk and cream a PEF system was used.
Electric exponential decay pulses with an average pulsed width of 1.5 !s were formed
with a generator unit (PPS 30, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada). PEF was
applied in a co-axial treatment chamber consisting of one vertically arranged central,
rod-shaped stainless steel grounded electrode, which passed into the chamber stand at
the bottom, and three ring-shaped stainless steel charging electrodes centered around
the grounded electrode and mounted in circular ring-shaped chamber metal segments.
Each of the electrode containing metal segments was, in turn, threaded into surrounding
plastic segments on the top and bottom functioning as insulating spacers. The electrode
gap between the charged and grounded electrodes of the PEF chamber was 0.25 cm
and the total chamber volume and the effective electrode treatment area amounted to
600 ml and 147 cm
2
, respectively.



"
#


Figure 2-1. Milk process sequence in conventional and alternative fluid milk processing
Products (ovals) and processes (rectangles) compared in this study are highlighted in gray. SEPT = Separation, STND = Standardization, HOMO:
Homogenization, PAST = Pasteurization, CFMF = Micro-filtration. Adapted from Pedersen 1992, and Walstra and others 2006.
Raw
Skim Cream
Milk
Raw
Skim
Upstream
Downstream
C
o
n
v
e
t
i
o
n
a
l
M
i
l
k

P
r
o
c
e
s
s
i
n
g
A
l
t
e
r
n
a
t
i
v
e

M
i
l
k

P
r
o
c
e
s
s
i
n
g
Cream
Cream
Skim
Milk
Skim
Cream Milk
SEPT
STND
HOMO
PAST PAST
PAST
HOMO
CFMF
STND
STND
SEPT

34



Table 2-1. Applied intensitites of high intensity pulsed electric fields and resulting
temperature profiles

Treatment
Flow
Rate
Fre-
quency
Treatment
time
Electric
Field
Energy
Temperature
Inlet Outlet
Milks
(1.0 to 3.8%)
1.2 L/h 25 Hz 1913 s 3.2 kV/mm 739 kJ/L 14.3 C 46.0 C
2.4 L/h 12 Hz 459 s 4.8 kV/mm 399 kJ/L 13.3 C 55.1 C
1.2 L/h 12 Hz 918 s 4.8 kV/mm 798 kJ/L 17.0 C 55.1 C
Skim milk
Low
temperature
2.4 L/h 20 Hz 765 s 4.0 kV/mm 462 kJ/L 5.9 C 43.0 C
1.2 L/h 20 Hz 1530 s 4.0 kV/mm 924 kJ/L 5.0 C 47.0 C
2.4 L/h 12 Hz 459 s 5.6 kV/mm 543 kJ/L 6.3 C 56.1 C
Skim milk
Mild
temperature
4.8 L/h 20 Hz 383 s 4.0 kV/mm 231 kJ/L 34.3 C 50.3 C
3.6 L/h 20 Hz 510 s 4.0 kV/mm 308 kJ/L 34.0 C 53.5 C
4.8 L/h 12 Hz 230 s 5.6 kV/mm 272 kJ/L 34.3 C 56.3 C
Skim milk
CFMF + PEF
1.2 L/h 25 Hz 1913 s 3.2 kV/mm 739 kJ/L 19.1 C 42.3 C
2.4 L/h 12 Hz 459 s 4.8 kV/mm 399 kJ/L 18.9 C 56.2 C
1.2 L/h 12 Hz 918 s 4.8 kV/mm 798 kJ/L 20.1 C 61.2 C
Cream (12.2%)
Standardized
2.4 L/h 20 Hz 765 s 4.0 kV/mm 462 kJ/L 5.3 C 42.3 C
1.2 L/h 20 Hz 1530 s 4.0 kV/mm 924 kJ/L 5.5 C 42.1 C
2.4 L/h 12 Hz 459 s 5.6 kV/mm 543 kJ/L 5.7 C 50.4 C
Cream (12.3%)
Homogenized
2.4 L/h 20 Hz 765 s 4.0 kV/mm 462 kJ/L 4.8 C 30.2 C
1.2 L/h 20 Hz 1530 s 4.0 kV/mm 924 kJ/L 5.0 C 43.5 C
2.4 L/h 12 Hz 459 s 5.6 kV/mm 543 kJ/L 5.0 C 50.5 C



33

Milk was exposed to electric field strengths between 3.2 and 5.6 kV/mm, in a
pulse frequency range between 12 and 25 Hz, for total PEF treatment times from 230 to
1913 !s, which corresponded to product flow rates between 1.2 and 4.8 L/h (Table 2-1).
Specific energy density (w
sp
) ranged from 543 to 1848 kJ/L and was calculated based
on capacitance, according to the equation by Zhang and others (1995), which was
adapted by Walkling-Ribeiro (2009), and is illustrated in Eq. 2-1:
@
AB
" #9
C
& ;
<
& D( #E & O

( " , #9
C
& ;
<
( #E & O

& 1

( , Eq. 2-1
Skim milk was pumped (Masterflex pump drive 7524-40 and pump head 77201-
60, Cole Parmer Instrument Co., Vernon Hills, IL, USA) through silicone tubing to the
PEF chamber. To evaluate the effect of temperature, the product was either pre-cooled
for 83 (at 2.4 L/h) or 110 s (at 1.2 L/h) in a stainless steel coil submerged in ice, entering
at 14 C and exiting at 4 C, prior to entering the PEF chamber at 5 C, or pre-heated
for 165 (3.6 L/h) or 330 s (4.8 L/h), entering the same coil submerged in a water bath
set at 37.5 C (Isotemp 10L, Fisher Scientific, Hampton, NH, USA) entering at 14 C
and exiting at 34 C prior to entering the chamber as described by Sampedro and
others (2007), and Heinz and others (2003), and illustrated in Table 2-1. The milk
temperature at the chamber outlet following PEF processing did not exceed 61 C and
the product was cooled subsequently to 12 C in a c oil, which was submerged in a
refrigerated water bath set at -12 C (NESLAB RTE-7 , Thermo Scientific, Newington,
NH, USA). Milk samples were stored in a styrofoam container containing ice prior to
microbiological and physico-chemical analyses. For temperature measurement, a
wireless temperature data logger (OM-SQ2020-2F8, Omega, Stamford, CT, USA) with

36

thermocouples was connected to stainless steel flow-through chambers, which, in turn,
were connected to the tubing were used. Pulses were monitored with a two-channel
digital storage oscilloscope using a bandwidth of 100 MHz and a sample rate of 1 GS/s
(TDS1012B, Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, OR, USA).
2.2.3. Conventional heat treatment of milk
High-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurization of milk was conducted in the
aforementioned pilot scale dual stage heat exchanger using a pre-heating temperature
of 50 C in the first stage of the unit prior to re aching final temperatures of 72, 85, or 95
C for holding times of 15, 20 or 15 s respectively .
2.2.4. Microbiological Analysis
After the milk was collected from the farm, the mesophilic counts were found to
be below 2,500 CFU/ml, coliform counts averaged about 300 CFU/ml and
psychrotrophic counts were below 300 CFU/ml. In order to achieve a high bacterial
concentration of native microorganisms in raw milk, a portion of the raw milk (10%) was
incubated at 18 C for 24 h. This portion was used as an inoculum for the remainder of
the refrigerated raw milk with final populations of about 7.0 log CFU/ml for total counts
(mesophiles), from which 6.0 log CFU/ml were coliforms, and 6.0 log CFU/ml were
psychrotrophs. The upstream processing conditions (separation, standardization and
homogenization) decreased the initial microbial population by less than 1.0 log CFU/ml.
Approximately 1.5 ml of milk were collected per sample after each processing
stage, and the ice cooled samples were serially diluted in Ringers solution (BR0052

37

Oxoid, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Basingstoke, UK) before spread-plating on the relevant
media. Mesophilic micororganisms were recovered on plate count agar (247940, BD
Difco, Sparks MD, USA) after incubation for 48 h at 32 C as recommended by Laird
and others (2004), enteric microorganisms were enumerated by plating on MacConkey
agar (R453802 Remel, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Lenexa, KS, USA) before incubation
for 24 h at 35 C as described by Henning and other s (2004), and psychrotrophs were
also recovered on plate count agar (247940, BD Difco, Sparks, MD, USA) after
incubation for 10 d at 7 C as suggested by Frank a nd Yousef (2004). Recovered
microorganisms were counted and log reductions were evaluated subsequently.
2.2.5. Physico-chemical properties
Electrical conductivity and pH were measured after processing at room
temperature with a handheld conductivity meter (CON 11, Oakton Instruments, Vernon
Hills, IL, USA), and a pH meter (AB 15 Accumet Basic, Fisher Scientific, Hampton, NH,
USA), respectively. Compositional analysis of milk was conducted at the Laboratory
Services Division, University of Guelph using a MilkoScan (FT 120 type 71200, Foss
Analytics, Copenhagen, Denmark). Fat or solids content were related to electrical
conductivity as in Eq 2-2 and 2-3.
I " #
<
& 5;( 2
<
Eq. 2-2
I " #
M
& 6hg( 2
M
Eq. 2-3


38

2.2.6. Statistical analysis
Statistical analyses were conducted using R version 2.10.1 (R Foundation for
Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) in conjunction with the Agricolae (Mendiburu
2009) and Rcommander (Fox 2009) packages for each set of data with a minimum of
two batches (n=2) applied with two repetitions per treatment. The effect of the PEF
processing conditions on milk was compared for each of the three microbial populations
(mesophiles, coliforms and psychrotrophs) separately using a multi-way analysis of
variance and multiple comparisons of treatments by means of Tukey (HSD) with an
alpha value of 0.05. Differences between the upstream and downstream products with
regard to the relationship between electrical conductivity and composition (percentage
of fat or solids) of milk were evaluated following an analysis of covariance. Means of pH
values were compared for each product and processing step. An analysis of covariance
(ANCOVA) was conducted following the procedure described by Faraway (2002) to
compare the relation between fat or solids content and conductivity between the
different products.

2.3. Results and Discussion
2.3.1. Bacteria reduction in PEF-treated milk of different fat contents
Prior PEF processing, for homogenized milks with fat contents of 1.0, 1.8, and
3.1%, the following microbial counts were obtained: 6.9, 6.2, and 6.1 log CFU/ml for
total mesophilic counts; 5.7, 6.2, and 6.1 log CFU/ml coliform counts; and 6.2, 5.9 and

39

5.9 log CFU/ml psychrotoph counts for the respective fat levels. Before HTST treatment
was conducted the total mesophile counts were 7.8, 6.2 and 7.6 log CFU/ml, total
coliforms were 6.0, 6.2 and 5.8 log CFU/ml and the total psychrotophs were 6.2, 5.8,
and 6.2 log CFU/ml in milk with fat levels of 1.1, 2.2, and 3.1%, respectively. The
reduction in counts of total mesophiles, psychrotrophs and coliforms achieved in milk at
the above fat levels following PEF applied at different electric fields and treatment times
is shown in Table 2-2. Application of PEF to milk led to a reduction of total mesophiles
ranging from 1.8 to 3.8 log CFU/ml (from 399 to 798 kJ/L) at fat levels between 1.1 and
3.1%. A trend towards higher reductions of total mesophiles (P<0.05) was observed at
lower fat concentrations when a higher electric field (4.8 kV/mm) and a longer treatment
time (918 !s) process was applied.
A high electric field strength (4.8 kV/mm) and low pulse frequency (12 Hz),
resulting in a high energy level (798 kJ/L) proved to be more effective for the reduction
of mesophiles in milk than processing the latter at a lower electric field strength (3.2
kV/mm) and higher frequency (25 Hz), which resulted in similar energy density (739
kJ/L).
Reduction of total mesophilic bacteria in milk pasteurized with HTST treatment
ranged from more than 3.8 to 4.7 log CFU/ml using 72 C for 15 s, while HTST
pasteurization at 85 C for 20 s led to a maximum r eduction of up to 4.9 log CFU/ml
(Table 2-2).



"
#


Table 2-2. Variation in microbial populations after pulsed electric fields (PEF) and high temperature short time
(HTST) processing of fluid milks
PEF Intensity HTST Intensity

Initial
Population
(log CFU/ml)
3.2 kV/mm
x 1913 !s
4.8 kV/mm
x 459 !s
4.8 kV/mm
x 918 !s

72 C
x 15 s
85 C
x 20 s
Mean SEM Mean SEM Mean SEM Mean SEM Mean SEM Mean SEM

%Fat
Reduction in mesophilics (log CFU/ml)
1.1 7.3 0.47
A
2.2 0.08
a
2.3 0.06
a
3.8 0.09
c
4.7 0.09
d
4.9 0.07
d

2.0 6.4 0.43
B
2.0 0.09
a
2.3 0.21
a
3.1 0.20
b
> 3.8 0.00 > 3.8 0.00
3.1 6.9 0.81
A
1.8 0.15
a
2.1 0.25
a
3.2 0.18
bc
4.7 0.07
d
4.6 0.03
d

% Fat Reduction in coliforms (log CFU/ml)
1.1
5.8 0.24
B

2.6 0.15
abc
3.0 0.11
abc
> 3.3 0.00

3.5 0.05
c
3.5 0.03
c

2.0
6.1 0.23
B

2.4 0.41
ab
2.6 0.09
abc
2.3 0.10
a


> 3.8 0.00 > 3.8 0.00
3.1 6.3 0.71
A
3.4 0.09
bc
3.4 0.17
bc
3.0 0.35
abc
3.3 0.00
abc
3.4 0.03
bc

% Fat Reduction in psychrotrophs (log CFU/ml)
1.1
6.2 0.10
A

> 3.9 0.00 > 3.9 0.00 > 3.9 0.00

> 3.8 0.00 > 3.8 0.00
2.0
5.9 0.16
C

> 3.5 0.03 > 3.3 0.23 > 3.5 0.00

> 3.4 0.00 > 3.4 0.00
3.1 6.1 0.16
B
> 3.5 0.00 > 3.1 0.40 > 2.8 0.67 > 3.8 0.00 > 3.8 0.00
A,B,C,a,b,c,d,e
Superscripted letters indicate means within the microbial population that are statistically different, with uppercase indicating the initial population, and
lowercase the reduction in the populations compared separately within microbial groups. SEM = Standard error of the mean. > indicates values where the microbial count
detection limit was reached.The energy inputs by PEF correspond to 1478 kJ/L (3.2 kV/mm x 1913 !s), 798 kJ/L (4.8 kV/mm x 459 !s), and 1597 kJ/L (4.8 kV/mm x 918 !s).
The temperature time combinations correspond to energies of 265 kJ/L (72 C x 15 s), and 316 kJ/L (85 C x 20 s).

61

Similar trends showing higher reductions at lower fat levels in milk treated with
PEF were also observed for psychrotroph counts. The reduction in counts observed in
this case ranged from greater than 2.8 log CFU/ml in 3.1% fat milk using 4.8 kV/mm for
918 !s to more than 3.9 log CFU/ml in milk containing 1.1% fat at all electric field and
treatment time combinations studied (P<0.05). A similar trend was observed for PEF
inactivation of psychrotrophs at the different fat levels (P%0.05). Reductions higher than
3.4 log CFU/ml were achieved by HTST pasteurization for all fat levels (1.1%, 2.0%,
and 3.1%) and time-temperature combinations (72 C for 15 s; 85 C for 20 s; 95 C for
15 s).
A statistical difference (P%0.05) was found between the minimum (2.3 log
CFU/ml) and the maximum reductions (3.4 log CFU/ml) for coliform bacteria in 2.0% fat
milk when processing with PEF at 4.8 kV/mm for 459 !s, and in milk with 3.1% fat using
3.2 kV/mm for 1913 !s, respectively. The minimum and maximum reductions achieved
with HTST milk processing for coliform bacteria were 3.3 (3.1% fat) and more than 3.8
(2.2% fat) log CFU/ml, respectively. Although these differences were statistically
significant (P<0.05), there were no indications that higher temperatures or higher fat
content could affect thermal inactivation of the coliforms. This may indicate that the
changes observed after PEF treatment in the mesophilic population could have been
influenced by variations in psychrotroph count or other groups of microorganisms not
examined in the present study, however, this trend was not observed for HTST-treated
microorganisms.

62

The influence of milk fat content on PEF effectiveness for microbial inactivation
has been studied by several researchers, who differ in their conclusions (Sobrino-Lpez
& Martn-Belloso 2009). Grahl and Mrkl (1996) PEF-treated Escherichia coli in ultra
high temperature (UHT) milk containing 1.5 and 3.5% fat content in a batch vessel with
20 pulses of 1.4 or 1.2 kV/mm, and at 2.2 kV/mm for 45.7 !s or 30 !s, respectively, and
applied regression analysis between survivors and electrical field (B
E
) and survivors and
treatment time (B
t
), as described by H*lsheger (1981) in order to observe the variation
in the regression coefficients. The B
E
varied between -4.8 and -3.1 mm/kV, and the B
t

between -6.0 and -4.0 !s
-1
for 1.5% and 3.5% fat milk, respectively, which indicated a
protective effect of fat against the high voltage pulses. Reina and others (1998)
investigated Listeria monocytogenes in milk with fat contents of 0.2%, 2.0%, and 3.5%
and PEF-processed in a continuous system (0.42 L/h at a pulse frequency of 1700 Hz)
with an electric field of 3.0 kV/mm for 100, 300 and 600 !s at 25 C. These researchers
(Reina and others 1998) reported no significant differences in inactivation based on the
different milk fat levels. In their investigation of PEF processing variables, Sobrino-
Lpez and others (2006) studied the inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus in milk in a
continuous PEF system (at a pulse frequency of 100Hz and temperatures kept below 25
C). The analysis looked into different fat content s (0.0%, or 3.0%), electric field
strengths (2.5 and 3.5 kV/mm), pulse numbers (50 and 150), pulse widths (4 and 8 !s),
and pulse types (monopolar and bipolar). A response surface quadratic model revealed
that fat content did not affect the inactivation of S. aureus, although there were
differences in the inactivation rates when the electric field intensity and pulse width
varied. The authors (Sobrino-Lpez and others 2006) suggested that the conductivity of

63

the samples (0.60 S/m for skim milk and 0.55 S/m for whole milk) did not influence the
inactivation trends.
Some studies suggest that the fat content of the milk may alter the effectiveness
of microbial reduction by PEF in milk, and that analysis of the processing conditions, as
performed by Grahl and Mrkl (1996) and Sobrino-L'pez (2006) can help to better
assess the relative effect of the variation in fat content. As suggested by Walkling-
Ribeiro and others (2009), the protective effect may be noticed above a certain fat level,
which may depend on specific processing conditions. Therefore, the application of
models like surface response analysis or tertiary models considering composition will
aid in the optimization of PEF milk processing. In relation to the microbial groups, it is
important to note that the reduction in microbial populations in raw milk varies
depending on the population number and diversity, with resistant populations
determining the surviving population. For example, Seplveda and others (2009) treated
whole milk by PEF using processing parameters of 3.5 kV/mm for 11.5 !s, a flow rate of
72 L/h and a maximum processing temperature of 65 C (10 s). Under these conditions
the researchers (Seplveda and others 2009) achieved a reduction of mesophilic,
enteric, and psychrotrophic bacteria of 1.5, more than 1.5, and more than 0.4 log
CFU/ml, respectively. In the present study higher microbial reductions may be expected
from HTST as temperature increased, but the presence of thermoduric microbial
populations even at the highest temperature setting may have caused a high post-
pasteurization population confirmed following procedures as in Frank & Yousef (2004)
in a confirmatory experiment.

64

2.3.2. Effect of the PEF inlet temperature on the reduction of microorganisms
The milk temperature prior to PEF processing as well as the overall exposure
time of milk to the pulse treatment affected the survival of mesophiles, coliforms and
psychrotrophs (Table 2-3). An increase of the PEF processing inlet temperature (from
5.0-6.3 C to 34.0-34.3 C), and doubling the milk flow rate (1.2-2.4 L/h to 3.6-4.8 L/h),
while maintaining the maximum outlet temperature at 56C, caused a 3.3 log CFU/ml
reduction of total mesophilic bacteria when an electric field strength of 5.6 kV/mm, for
230 !s was applied. Application of a lower electric field strength of 4.0 kV/mm led to an
increase in bacterial inactivation from 1.5 to 2.8 log CFU/ml in half the time (765 !s to
383 !s), suggesting an additive treatment effect. These results confirm that the
microbial inactivation by PEF is effective at mild temperatures (between 34.3 and 50.3
C), and that the PEF treatment of a colder product (5.0 to 5.9 C) requires additional
energy to cause a rise in temperature. The overall effect was to produce a final outlet
temperature of 43 C. For total coliforms, a minimu m reduction of 2.0 log CFU/ml was
achieved at the lowest PEF treatment conditions (4.0 kV/mm for 765 !s with 924 kJ/L),
and an increase in milk temperature at the PEF chamber inlet from 5.9 to 34.3 C
together with an increase of the product flow from 2.4 L/h (765 !s) to 4.8 L/h (383 !s),
resulted in a greater inactivation (P < 0.05) of coliform bacteria of up to 2.7 log CFU/ml.
More severe PEF treatment conditions (543 kJ/L from 5.6 kV/mm for 230 !s, 616 kJ/L
from 4.0 kV/mm for 510 !s, 1086 kJ/L from 5.6 kV/mm for 459 !s, or 1848 kJ/L from 4.0
kV/mm for 1530 !s) led to coliform reductions in milk of >3.9 log CFU/ml (Table 2-3).


63




Table 2-3. Effect of the pulsed electric fields inlet processing temperature on the
reduction of different bacteria groups in skim milk
Inlet
Temperature
(C)
"

Intensity
Mesophilics Coliforms Psychrotrophs
Mean SEM Mean SEM Mean SEM
Microbial population
(Log CFU/ml)
Initial population 6.2 0.13
A
6.3 0.18
A
6.2 0.08
A


Reduction in microbial population
(Log CFU/ml)
Low
(5.0-6.3 C)
4.0 kV/mm x 765 !s 1.5 0.09
a
2.0 0.41
a
3.1 0.18
a

4.0 kV/mm x 1530 !s 3.7 0.10
c
> 3.9 0.00 > 3.8 0.00


5.6 kV/mm x 459 !s 3.4 0.05
bc
> 3.9 0.00

> 3.8 0.00


Mild
(34.0-34.3 C)
4.0 kV/mm x 383 !s 2.8 0.21
b
2.7 0.10
a
2.9 0.29
a

4.0 kV/mm x 510 !s 3.0 0.23
bc
> 3.9 0.00

> 3.8 0.00


5.6 kV/mm x 230 !s 3.3 0.07
bc
> 3.9 0.00

> 3.8 0.00

A,a,b,c,d,e
Superscripted letters indicate means within the different groups of bacteria that are statistically different with uppercase
indicating the initial population, and lowercase the reduction in the populations comparated separately within microbial groups. SEM
= Standard error of the mean.
1
Maximum outlet temperature: 56.3 C. > indicates va lues where the microbial count detection limit
was reached. The corresponding energy inputs were 924 kJ/L (4.0 kV/mm x 765 !s), 1848 kJ/L (4.0 kV/mm x 1530 !s), 1086 kJ/L
(5.6 kV/mm x 459 !s), 462 kJ/L (4.0 kV/mm x 383 !s), 616 kJ/L (4.0 kV/mm x 510 !s), and 543 kJ/L (5.6 kV/mm x 230 !s).



66

Psychrotrophic bacteria in milk were reduced by the applied PEF conditions in a similar
manner as the coliform bacteria but a higher reduction in count of 3.1 log CFU/ml was
achieved at milder PEF treatment conditions (using 4.0 kV/mm for 765 !s at kJ/L).
Reina and others (1998) also observed that while applying 30 kV/mm at 1,700
Hz, an increase in temperature to 50C was needed t o achieve a 3 to 4 log CFU/ml (at
300 and 600 !s respectively) reduction in count compared to less than 2 and 3 log
CFU/ml in a temperature range between 25 and 43 C for 600 !s at the same treatment
times. Recent studies (Seplveda and others 2005, Sampedro and others 2007, and
Jaeger and others 2009) have taken a similar approach of decreasing the PEF energy
input by increasing the product inlet temperature. Sampedro and others (2007) reduced
the energy to inactivate 1.8 log CFU/ml of Lactobacillus plantarum in an orange juice
milk-based beverage (50% orange juice, 20% skimmed milk) using between 352 and
890 kJ/L by increasing the product inlet temperature from 35 to 55C while applying 4.0
kV/mm for up to 130 !s (pulse width of 2.5 !s and frequency between 110 and 356 Hz).
Similarly, Jaeger and others (2009) found that increasing the product inlet temperature
to 30C produced greater inactivation of Lb. rhamnosus (up to 2.0 log CFU/ml
reduction) in milk (4.3% fat) when applying 3.0 kV/mm for 25 !s (square wave pulses of
3 !s at a frequency of 56 Hz, flow rate of 5 L/h and energy input of 100 kJ/kg) in a
continuous system. Advanced systems for pre-heating milk to be PEF treated include
the one used by Seplveda and others (2005) to inactivate raw milk microflora. In their
case they recovered the heat produced in the treatment chamber from the outgoing milk
stream, and incorporated into the incoming milk stream by using a tube-in-tube heat

67

exchanger to increase the temperature to around 50 C (for a maximum temperature of
65 C for 15 seconds). Hoogland and de Haan (2007) estimated that large-scale PEF
treatments could be applied using a heating/cooling cycle of 5-35-50-5 C with
regeneration most likely becoming not economically feasible.
From a microbiological perspective a possible synergistic effect of temperature
and PEF treatment could be attributed to an increase in microbial membrane fluidity at
higher temperatures caused by phase transition of the phospholipids from gel to liquid-
crystalline structure, leading to more pronounced electroporation effects (Heinz and
others 2003, and Jaeger and others 2009). In complex food systems like milk the
liquefaction of colloidal particles (e.g. fat globules) that affect resistivity could also add to
potential treatment synergism. Therefore, a decrease in sample viscosity (and increase
in conductivity) is a factor that may increase milk PEF treatment efficiency as it
improves the initial separation and homogenization operations (Walstra and others
2006, Kessler 2002). As excessive heat treatment causes chemical and physical
changes in milk (Walstra 2006), consequently, PEF treatment duration is also limited to
outlet temperatures ideally below the minimum low-temperature long-time
pasteurization conditions (63 C for 30 min) at ver y long treatment times (e.g. 10
8
!s) or
shorter treatment times (e.g. 10
5
!s), which is well below HTST pasteurization
requirements (72 C for 15 s).

68

2.3.3. Milk processing with a combination of CFMF and PEF
In order to enhance the processing efficacy, CFMF and PEF were used in a
hurdle approach (CFMF/PEF), resulting in overall higher reductions of the bacterial load
in milk (Table 2-4).
Milk processing with CFMF/PEF achieved >4.7, >4.7, and >3.7 log CFU/ml
reductions for counts of total mesophilic, coliform and psychrotroph bacteria,
respectively, using the most severe PEF conditions (at 4.8 kV/mm for 918 !s with an
energy density of 798 kJ/L), which resulted in the highest milk temperature at the PEF
chamber outlet (61 C). A reduction to half of the energy density led to the same results
at a lower outlet temperature of the product (56 C). Equivalent results were obtained
for a combination of CFMF and HTST (CFMF/HTST), with the latter used at 72 C for 15
s, which reduced total mesophilic, coliform and psychrotroph bacteria by >4.4, >4.3, and
>4.1 log CFU/ml, respectively (P % 0.05).
Early studies on milk microfiltration by Olesen and Jensen (1989) reported a
reduction in the total count by 3.9 log CFU/ml, the spore count by 3.5 log CFU/ml and
lactate fermenting bacteria by >1.8 log CFU/ml (lower initial count) using CFMF
exclusively. A review by Saboya and Maubois (2000) cites that the average microbial
reduction in fluid milk by CFMF is above 3.5 log CFU/ml with a variation among various
microbial species including spores (>4.5 log CFU/ml), Listeria monocytogenes (3.4 log
CFU/ml), Brucella abortus (4.0 log CFU/ml), Salmonella Typhimurium (3.5 log CFU/ml),
and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (3.7 log CFU/ml).

69




Table 2-4. Reduction of microbial populations after processing of skim milk with
cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF) and pulsed electric fields (PEF) or high
temperature short time (HTST) pasteurization in a combined approach
(CFMF/PEF; CFMF/HTST)
Treatment Intensity
Mesophilics Coliforms Psychrotrophs
Mean SEM Mean SEM Mean SEM
Microbial Population
(Log CFU/ml)
Initial population 6.9 0.47
A
7.0 0.36
A
6.3 0.39
B


Reduction in microbial population
(Log CFU/ml)
CFMF Standard

2.1 0.11
a
2.9 0.07
b
3.2 0.09
b

CFMF/PEF 3.2 kV/mm x 1913 !s 4.2 0.10
b
> 4.7 0.00 > 3.7 0.00
CFMF/PEF 4.8 kV/mm x 459 !s > 4.7 0.00

> 4.7 0.00 > 3.7 0.00
CFMF/PEF 4.8 kV/mm x 918 !s > 4.7 0.00 > 4.7 0.00 > 3.7 0.00
CFMF Standard

2.0 0.18
a
2.3 0.08
a
2.0 0.03
a

CFMF/HTST 72 C x 15 s > 4.4 0.00 > 4.3 0.00 > 4.1 0.00
CFMF/HTST 85 C x 20 s > 4.4 0.00 > 4.3 0.00 > 4.1 0.00
CFMF/HTST 95 C x 15 s > 4.4 0.00 > 4.3 0.00

> 4.1 0.00

A,B,a,b,c,d,e
Superscripted letters indicate means within the groups of bacteria that are statistically different with uppercase indicating the
initial population, and lowercase the reduction in the populations comparated separately within microbial groups. > indicates values
where the microbial count detection limit was reached.

The standard CFMF conditions were inlet and outlet pressures of 90 (at 120
L/h), and 20 kPa (at 12 L/h) at 35 C with a membra ne pore size of 1.4 !m, with an estimated energy consumption of 37 kJ/L. SEM
= Standard error of the mean. The energy inputs by PEF correspond to 1478 kJ/L (3.2 kV/mm x 1913 !s), 798 kJ/L (4.8 kV/mm x
459 !s), and 1597 kJ/L (4.8 kV/mm x 918 !s). The temperature time combinations correspond to energies of 265 kJ/L (72 C x 15
s), 316 kJ/L (85 C x 20 s), and 355 kJ/L (95 C x 15 s).


70

Madec and others (1992) observed that the microbial reduction in skim milk can
be constant and independent from the level of contamination, for example, the reduction
in log CFU/ml obtained for Listeria innocua ranged between 1.8 and 1.9 at
contamination levels between 10
2
and 10
6
CFU/ml and that of Salmonella abortus ovis
between 2.4 and 2.5. In their study raising the CFMF processing temperature from 35 to
50 C increased the decimal reduction of Salmonella, from 2.5 to 3.3, but not that of
Listeria. Elwell and Barbano (2006) reported a reduction in the total counts of milk of 3.8
log CFU/ml using CFMF, and a higher microbial load reduction of 5.6 log CFU/ml was
caused by HTST when applied at 72 C for 15 s. In t his study, because of the low initial
population the quantifiable coliform reduction was %1.2 log CFU/ml with CFMF as well
as with added heat pasteurization.
The reductions observed in the mesophilic counts in this study are comparable to
those reported by Madec and others (1992) with Listeria innocua, and the reductions
achieved for coliforms and psychrotrophs are closer to the average decimal reduction
cited by Saboya and Maubois (2000), but considering that the processing temperature
was 35 C in our study, there is further room for a n increase in the treatment efficacy by
taking advantage of the combined effect of moderate heating (50 C) on thermally
sensitive microbial groups. An equivalent CFMF unit to that utilized in this study (MFS-1
Tetrapak Processing) was used by Hoffman and others (2006) who observed almost no
changes in the composition of the milk by CFMF processing, and the effects of thermal
load in the cream (monitored by furosine content), and whey protein fractions
(denaturation of +-lactalbumin, )-lactoglobulin and immunoglobulins) were reduced by

71

applying HTST instead of UHT to produce extended shelf life (ESL) milk. Our study is
the first considering the combination of PEF and CFMF, and is a complement to the
study by Walkling-Ribeiro and others (2010), which considered the recovery of several
microbial populations after combining both technologies.
2.3.4. Inactivation of native bacteria in cream by PEF
The effect of PEF on the inactivation of different groups of milk bacteria in
standardized and homogenized cream containing 12% fat is presented in Table 2-5.
The results indicate that there are no significant differences (P % 0.05) in the reduction
of the total mesophile population (0.7 to 3.4 vs. 0.1 to 2.9 log CFU/ml) or psychrotrophs
(0.5 to >3.8 log CFU/ml vs. 0.2 to >3.1 log CFU/ml) for standardized and homogenized
cream at the three electric field strength and treatment time combinations tested (4.0
kV/mm for 765 !s; 4.0 kV/mm for 1530 !s; and 5.6 kV/mm for 459 !s). However, for
coliform and psychrotroph bacteria higher inactivation in homogenized cream than for
standardized cream (2.8 vs. 1.6 log CFU/ml and 2.0 vs. 0.5 log CFU/ml) were obtained
when 4.0 kV/mm were applied for 1530 !s. For standardized and homogenized cream,
PEF processing conditions using 5.6 kV/mm for 459 !s with 543 kJ/L generally proved
to be more effective (P<0.05) than PEF treatment with 924 (4.0 kV/mm for 765 !s) or
924 (4.0 kV/mm for 1530 !s) kJ/L. The higher reduction obtained with 543 kJ/L
compared with the one achieved at 924 kJ/L can be attributed to the higher electric field
(5.6 kV/mm compared to 4.0 kV/mm), which also caused a higher temperature rise (50-
51 C vs. 42-44 C, respectively) in a shorter trea tment time (459 vs. 1530 !s,
respectively).

72




Table 2-5. Effect of pulsed electric fields processing on different groups of native
bacteria in cream
Pre-
treatment
Intensity
Mesophilics Coliforms Psychrotrophs
Mean SEM Mean SEM Mean SEM


Microbial Population
(Log CFU/ml)
STND
Initial population
6.5 0.10
A
6.3 0.05
A
6.2 0.13
A

HOMO
5.6 0.10
B
5.5 0.05
B
5.5 0.05
B



Reduction in microbial population
(Log CFU/ml)
STND
4.0 kV/mm x 765 !s 0.7 0.00
ab
0.4 0.05
a
0.5 0.06
a

4.0 kV/mm x 1530 !s 1.7 0.05
b
1.6 0.07
b
0.5 0.00
a

5.6 kV/mm x 459 !s 3.4 0.06
c
3.6 0.15
a
> 3.8 0.00


HOMO
4.0 kV/mm x 765 !s 0.1 0.05
a
0.2 0.09
a
0.2 0.03
a

4.0 kV/mm x 1530 !s 1.2 0.49
b
2.8 0.19
c
2.0 0.40
b

5.6 kV/mm x 459 !s 2.9 0.15
c
> 3.1 0.03 > 3.1 0.00


A,B,a,b,c,d,e
Superscripted letters indicate means within the group of bacteria that are statistically different. SEM = Standard error of the
mean, STND = standardized, HOMO = homogenized. > indicates values where the microbial count detection limit was reached.
Homogenization was conducted at two pressure stages of 20 MPa and 5 MPa respectively. The respective energy inputs were 924
kJ/L (4.0 kV/mm x 765 s), 1848 kJ/L (4.0 kV/mm x 1530 s), and 1086 kJ/L (5.6 kV/mm x 459 s).


73

The microbial reductions achieved in this study were higher than those obtained
by Maas and others (2001), and Picart and others (2002) who achieved not more than
2.0 log CFU/ml reduction in E. coli counts by treating cream of higher fat content in
batch PEF systems. Maas and others (2001) conducted their study with full-fat (33%)
cream using PEF at 3.34 kV/mm for 28 to 98 !s and suggested that a fat content above
whole milk did not enhance the protection of microorganisms against inactivation by
PEF. Similarly, Picart and others (2002) obtained a maximum reduction of 2.0 log
CFU/ml using PEF at 3.7 kV/mm for 250 !s for processing of 20% fat cream inoculated
with a cocktail of three Listeria innocua strains of different heat resistances. Toepfl and
others (2007) suggested that, theoretically, the lethal effect of PEF might be impaired by
agglomeration of microbial cells or between cells and insulating particles present in the
food. The latter authors estimated that the variations within these factors may occur in
zones where the peak electric field can be reduced by a factor of 0.45, thus, the
development of a challenging processing scenario for the worst case is suggested in
order to determine the most effective electric field strength. In laboratory observations
by Toepfl (2006), an increase in fat content up to 10% by addition of cream to milk did
not have an impact on the effectiveness of inactivation of Lb. rhamnosus or
Pseudomonas fluorescens (reduced by >3.0 and 4.0 log CFU/ml, respectively) when
applying 2.16 kV/mm (up to 150 kJ/kg). It can be speculated that this effect was due to
a substantial amount of inoculated microorganisms remaining in the aqueous phase of
milk (Toepfl 2006).

74

Otunola and others (2008) compared the inactivation of E. coli in the presence of
indigenous microorganisms following PEF treatment at 4.0 kV/mm for 120 !s of milk
with 2% fat and cream with 18% fat. They observed reductions in the bacterial counts of
1.5 and 1.1 log CFU/ml, respectively, which was not significant. The difference was
more noticeable at a shorter treatment time (30 !s) where a 0.9 log CFU/ml reduction in
count was achieved in 2% milk compared to 0.2 log CFU/ml in the 18% cream. These
results suggest a tendency towards a faster initial decrease in bacterial numbers in the
2% milk with a remaining resistant population in both products that caused a tailing in
the inactivation graph at a treatment time of 120 !s (4.0 kV/mm). Therefore, at a specific
electric field, high fat dairy products may require longer treatment times for microbial
inactivation to occur.
While it is possible to achieve a relatively high microbial reduction in cream at a
given electric field, high fat dairy products may require longer treatment times for
microbial inactivation to occur. For instance, at the highest PEF setting used in this
study (5.6 kV/mm for 459 !s), total counts were reduced by 3.4 log CFU/ml in
standardized cream, and 2.9 log CFU/ml in homogenized cream (12% fat), similar
(P%0.05) to the 3.7 log CFU/ml reduction in counts observed in skim milk (Tables 2-3
and 2-5). Also, the difference was reflected in a lower temperature rise resulting from
the PEF treatment of these products (viz. 45 C in standardized and 46 C in
homogenized 12% fat cream vs. 50 C in 0.2% fat mi lk). Therefore, the protective effect
of cream is related to the PEF conditions, and an increase in the intensity of the
treatment conditions may be needed for creams, similar to the commercial practice
applied for heat pasteurization, where cream needs to be pasteurized or sterilized at 5

73

to 7 C above the temperature levels used for whole milk (Kessler 2002). In the United
States the pasteurized milk ordinance (FDA 2009) requires an increase of 3 C to the
pasteurization temperature for milks with fat content higher than 10%.
2.3.5.Effect of processing on the physicochemical properties of milk
Conductivity is one of the most critical physical properties to examine as it affects
the energy input and change in temperature at a given dose. This has led researchers
to its measurement in various food products and further relation with temperature
(Amiali and others 2006, Ruhlman and others 2001).
When analyzed separately, the relations between fat content and electrical
conductivity of raw and skim milk showed a low correlation (R
2
of 0.542 and 0.457
respectively) compared to cream (R
2
= 0.824). In the other hand, when the information
for all the non-homogenized products were combined a correlation of 0.962 was
obtained, while when all the products were included a correlation of 0.824 was obtained
(Table 2-6). This decrease in correlation between fat content and electrical conductivity
may have been caused by variations in the physicochemical properties due to
homogenization, and heating as explained by the Milkoscan manual (FOSS 1998). The
correlation of individual products after homogenization was not analyzed as they
resulted in low correlations, which as in the raw and skim can be attributed to a higher
variability in conductivity in a small range of fat contents (3.7 % to 4.0 % and 0.05 % to
0.30 % fat respectively).




"
#


Table 2-6. Linear regression coefficients of the relation between fat or solids and conductivity of milk fractions
Fraction Slope Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
Intercept Lower
Limit
Upper
Limit
Adjusted
R
2

RSE
Conductivity (S/m) as a function of fat content (%)
Raw 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.542 0.000
Skim 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.457 0.000
Cream -0.006 -0.007 -0.005 0.45 0.42 0.50 0.820 0.032
Combined -0.007 -0.008 -0.007 0.51 0.50 0.51 0.962 0.022
Standardized -0.006 -0.012 0.000 0.51 0.49 0.52 0.088 0.017
Homogenized -0.006 -0.021 0.008 0.49 0.45 0.52 -0.005 0.046
Pulsed -0.008 -0.034 0.019 0.45 0.38 0.51 -0.040 0.049
Heated 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.40 0.40 0.40 0.639 0.000
Combined -0.008 -0.015 -0.002 0.48 0.47 0.50 0.050 0.033
Non-
homogenized
-0.007 -0.008 -0.007 0.50 0.50 0.51 0.970 0.018
All
combined
-0.007 -0.008 -0.007 0.48 0.47 0.48 0.824 0.036
Conductivity (S/m) as a function of solids content (%)
Skim 0.003 -0.020 0.027 0.47 0.25 0.68 -0.021 0.017
Retentate 0.077 0.030 0.125 0.08 -0.54 0.19 0.736 0.017
Permeate
Pulsed 0.064 -0.032 0.161 -0.04 -0.50 0.43 0.706 0.005
Heated 0.053 0.037 0.068 0.02 -0.09 0.14 0.966 0.013
Combined 0.053 0.049 0.056 0.02 -0.01 0.06 0.921 0.019

RSE = Residual Standard Error.




"
"






Figure 2-2. Relation between electrical conductivity and fat or solids content (A = non-homogenized products; B
= non-fat milk products)

Lines represent the range where a linear regression was established. Homogenization was conducted at two pressure stages of 20 MPa and 5 MPa respectively.


0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0
C
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
S
/
m
)
% Fat
A
y = -0.007x + 0.50
Adjusted R! = 0.970
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0
C
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
S
/
m
)
% Solids
B
y = 0.05x + 0.02
Adjusted R! = 0.921

78

A similar trend was observed for the solids content, which resulted in R
2
ranging
from 0.706 to 0.966 in the CFMF products, and combined, gave a correlation of 0.921,
the range of solids analyzed was 4.1 % to 9.0 %. As mentioned above, the analysis of
the relation between conductivity and solids content did not result in a correlation either.
From the slopes it can be estimated that for each 10% increase in the fat level
the conductivity of the non-homogenized products decreased by 0.07 S/m in the range
of 0.05 and 50.60 % fat and conductivities between 0.54 and 0.17 S/m (Figure 2-2 A),
while the conductivity increased by 0.05 S/m for each 1% of increase in solids content in
the range of 4.1 % and 9.0 % solids and 0.21 and 0.51 S/m for conductivity.
Mabrook and Petty (2003) reported milk conductivities of 0.54 S/m for 0.1% fat,
0.52 S/m for 1.6% fat, and 0.51 S/m for 3.6 % fat, which represented a slope of -0.010
S/m per % fat and a 0% fat value (intercept) of 0.54 S/m. Sobrino-L'pez and others
(2006) observed conductivity values of 0.60 S/m for 0% fat, 0.60 S/m for 1.5 % fat and,
0.55 S/m for 3.0% fat, respectively, or a slope of -0.018 S/m% fat, and intercept of 0.61
S/m. Compared to the results presented in this study the previous authors observed
slightly higher conductivity values (i.e. 0.60 or 0.54 compared to 0.50 S/m for skim milk),
and a higher decrease in conductivity with increasing fat content. This variation may be
explained by the sensitivity of the methods used to determine conductivity and % fat
(not specified).
On average, the pH of all milk products investigated ranged from 6.71 and 6.98.
Milks with fat contents between 1.1 to 3.1% varied between 6.71 and 6.83, while the pH

79

of cream was between 6.84 and 6.92, and for non-fat milk products a pH from 6.82 to
6.98 was obtained. There were no differences (P%0.05) in pH between separation
products (raw, cream and skim milk), nor within the different milk, cream, and non-fat
milk products. In a comparable study, Michalac and others (2003) found no differences
in electrical conductivity or pH of raw or UHT skim milk after PEF treatment (at 3.5
kV/mm for 47.4 !s using a flow rate of 3.6 L/h), or heat pasteurization (73 C for 30 s),
with pH values between 6.68 and 6.76. Saboya and Maubois (2000) obtained, after
CFMF treatment of debacterized skim milk with a pH 6.72, milk retentate and permeate
with a pH of 6.73 and 6.69, respectively. Among the few studies on PEF treatment of
cream no variation in pH was reported following exposure to PEF, which is in line with
the findings of this study.

2.4.Conclusions
In the present study the most effective PEF treatment of milk inoculated with
native bacteria led to comparable or slightly lower reductions in total mesophilic,
psychrotroph and coliform counts than those obtained with HTST pasteurization.
Treatment efficacy of PEF against the microorganisms was generally enhanced when
higher electric field strengths and energy densities were applied. Moreover, a lower milk
fat content enabled higher bacterial inactivation by both PEF and HTST in general.
Combining CFMF and PEF in a hurdle strategy increased the antimicrobial effect to an
equivalent level observed for HTST treatment and consequently, further in-depth
research on CFMF/PEF processing of milk is recommended. For cream processing,

80

PEF proved to be more effective for standardized than for homogenized cream. The
conductivity of the PEF-treated milk was primarily affected by the solids content and
secondarily by the fat content, while no variation in the pH of the milk products was
observed during processing.

81

3. Microbial inactivation and shelf life comparison of cold hurdle processing
with pulsed electric fields and cross-flow microfiltration, and conventional
thermal pasteurisation in milk
3.1. Introduction
Conventional heat pasteurisation has been applied and acknowledged as the
most effective processing method for the commercial production of microbiologically
safe milk for nearly a century. With the emergence of novel technologies for milk
processing such as microfiltration (Hoffmann and others 2006; Makardij and others
1999), pulsed electric fields (Smith and others 2002; Walkling-Ribeiro and others 2009),
ultrasound (Noci and others 2009; Zenker and others 2003), bactofugation (De Noni
and others 2007; Te Giffel and Van Der Horst 2004), and high hydrostatic pressure
(Datta and Deeth 1999; Guan and others 2005), the cornerstone has been laid to meet
growing consumer demands for enhanced nutritiousness, sensory attributes, and shelf
stability of milk. Due to its complex structure milk serves as an ideal growth medium for
a wide variety of microorganisms, of which, coliform, psychrotrophic, and endospore-
forming bacteria are of particular interest and importance from a food safety point of
view (Christiansson and others 1989, Oliver and others 2005, Vasavada 1988) because
of their respective potential pathogenicity, verifiable growth at refrigerated storage
conditions, and distinct resistance to conventional milk processing conditions. The latter
are limited by the susceptibility of milk to thermal stress, which affects product quality
and consumer acceptability. Incorporation of CFMF in the milk manufacturing process
has led to an improvement of the microbial and organoleptic quality of milk following the
principle of liquid separation by membranes with a pore size in the range of 0.1 to 10

82

!m (Brans and others 2004, Daufin and others 2001, Kaufmann and Kulozik 2006),
which generally enable high flow rates, improved yield, reduced processing costs and
higher quality compared to conventional heat treatments. Nonetheless, CFMF is
combined with thermal pasteurisation (TP) for commercial scale production of milk due
to current regulatory food safety requirements (Eberhard and Gallmann 2009, Lewis
2010).
Milk processing with PEF is based on a different mode of action known as
electro-permeabilisation of microbial membranes (Wouters and others 2001a), bringing
about loss of cell viability. Similar to CFMF, commercial milk processing with PEF is
subject to legal restraints and therefore, additional TP treatment of milk is required
(European Union 1997; FDA 2009). Combining CFMF with PEF in a hurdle technology
(Leistner 2000) for cold pasteurisation of milk has not been studied to date and may
not only represent an alternative for the production of minimally processed milk of
potentially better microbiological safety and shelf life as well as nutritional and sensory
quality than heat pasteurised milk but it could also contribute to an increase in
legislative acceptance of emerging food processing technologies in general.
An investigation of the efficacy of a novel nonthermal processing approach for
milk with CFMF, PEF and their combinations (CFMF/PEF, PEF/CFMF) compared to
that of conventional heat pasteurisation for the inactivation of native biota was the first
objective of this study. Another aim was the evaluation of the microbiological shelf
stability of milk preserved with the most effective cold hurdle technology in comparison
to TP-treated milk.


83

3.2. Materials and methods
3.2.1. Milk preparation and analysis of microbial inactivation
Separated raw bovine skim milk (0.08 % fat content, 50 C) was obtained from a
dairy processing plant (Gay Lea Foods, Guelph, ON, Canada) and subsequently 90% of
the product was refrigerated while 10% of the raw milk was used for inocula. Raw milk
provided for inocula was spiked with an additional portion (10% of the inoculum volume)
of refrigerated whole bovine raw milk from another dairy (University of Guelph Dairy
Research Station, Elora, ON, Canada) in order to diversify the microbial population
further and then incubated for 24 h at 25 C to pro duce final inocula containing 10
10

CFU of native biota per ml. Prior to processing, these inocula were added to the
refrigerated raw skim milk for a 1:10 (v/v) dilution ratio, thereby, providing high initial
counts that ensured accurate analysis of the inactivation of native microorganisms
above the detection limit of the assays used for their enumeration (1.5 log
10
CFU/ml)
after hurdle processing. Additionally, inoculated raw milk was filtered through a cheese
cloth (Softwipe, American Fiber and Finishing Inc., Albemarle, NC, USA) allowing
removal of possible particles for uniform and reproducible treatment conditions.

84




Figure 3-1. Schematic drawing of the pulsed electric fields (PEF) treatment
chamber used for skim milk processing and sequence for combined processing
of PEF with cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF)

A: Aerial view and side view of the pulsed electric fields (PEF) treatment chamber used for skim milk processing; B: schematic
sequence for combined processing with PEF and followed by cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF), and C:reversed order (B) with CFMF
followed by PEF
Electrode
Top
View
Lateral
View
PEF
Cooling
CFMF
CFMF
PEF Cooling
+
Charge
connectors
Product
outlet
Charged
electrodes
Product
inlet
Insulating
spacers
Product
inlet
A B
Ground
electrode
C

83

Aliquots of 100 !l from treated milk samples, or their ten-fold dilutions prepared
with Ringers solution (BR0052G, Oxoid Ltd., Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK), were
spread on plate count agar (PCA; 247940, BD Difco, Sparks, MD, USA) under aseptic
conditions in a class 2 biosafety cabinet (Forma 4071-1200, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Inc., Newlington, NH, USA) for the analysis of total aerobic mesophilic counts (TAMC).
Agar plates were incubated at 30 C for 72 h as des cribed in a study by Zrate and
others (1997) before counting.
3.2.2.Nonthermal processing with PEF
For nonthermal processing of inoculated raw skim milk, a treatment chamber
designed at the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo was used with a
custom-built pulsed electric fields (PEF) generating system (PPS 30, University of
Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada). The horizontally-oriented treatment chamber (Figure
3-1) is equipped with 3 food grade stainless steel cylindrical electrodes fitted in threaded
stainless steel cylinders, which, in turn, are screwed into insulating cylinders of thermo-
resistant plastic at the top and at the bottom. A stainless steel pole (3.8 mm diameter)
mounted vertically on a circular base plate functions as the grounding electrode,
creating an average electrode gap of 2.5 mm to the encircling charged electrodes with a
total treatment surface area of 49 cm
2
per electrode pairing. The product entered and
exited the PEF chamber through food grade stainless steel connectors installed on the
bottom and top, respectively, and gaskets were placed before the thread sections to
ensure leak tightness. The total product volume in the chamber was 600 ml with a
treatment volume of 17 ml in the case that all 3 cylindrical electrodes were operated. A

86

pulse generator unit consisting of 2 charging capacitors (each with a capacitance of
0.31 !F) and a thyratron switch (TM-27) was used for the generation of monopolar
exponential decay pulses (with a pulse width of 1.5 !s), which were measured with a
high voltage probe (P6015A, Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, OR, USA) and monitored on a
2-channel digital storage oscilloscope (TD 1012, Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, OR, USA). A
peristaltic pump (Masterflex pump drive 7524-40 and pump head 77201-60, Cole
Parmer Instrument Co., Vernon Hills, IL, U SA) was used for passing inoculated
milk at a flow rate of 2.4 L/h through peroxide-cured silicone precision tubing (Masterflex
L/S 16, Cole Parmer Instrument Co., Vernon Hills, IL, USA). The latter was connected
by food grade stainless steel flow-through cells for temperature measurement before
and after the processing equipment, at the inlet and outlet of the PEF chamber. The
tubing was subsequently coiled and submerged in a cooling bath (NESLAB RTE 7,
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Newlington, NH, USA) prior to the sampling point. The
product processing temperature was measured and recorded with a portable wireless
data-logger (OM-SQ2020-2F8, Omega, Stamford, CT, USA), which was connected to
T-type thermocouples (TMTSS-040G-6, Omega, Stamford, CT, USA), which were
connected to the flow-through cells described above.
Milk processing with PEF was carried out at electric field strengths of 1.6, 2.0, 3.0
and 4.2 kV/mm for respective treatment times of 2105, 1454, 983, and 612 !s. These
treatments conditions corresponded to specific energy densities of 407, 632, 668, and
815 kJ/L, respectively. Milk temperatures ranged from 16 C at the PEF chamber inlet to
40, 45, 47 and 49 C, depending on the energy densi ty, at the chamber outlet and the
subsequent cooling step reduced the product temperature to 10 C prior to sampling.

87

Samples of processed milk were placed in a Styrofoam container filled with ice prior to
microbiological analysis.
3.2.3. Nonthermal processing with CFMF
A 1.4 !m pore size microfiltration unit (MFS-1, Tetra Pak Filtration Systems,
Aarhus, Denmark) was applied for cold pasteurisation of inoculated milk. Based on the
commercial practice of CFMF application in the milk industry, a 1:10 ratio of retentate
(12 L/h) to permeate filtration membrane flow rate (120 L/h) was set for the milk
processing with respective pressures of 90 and 20 kPa at the inlet and outlet of the
membrane module. The active membrane surface area of the CFMF module was 0.2 m
2

producing a transmembrane flux of 660 L/h m
2
. The CFMF milk processing temperature
was constant at 35 C and treated samples were cool ed prior to microbiological
analysis.
3.2.4. Nonthermal hurdle processing
Both nonthermal technologies, PEF and CFMF, were combined for milk hurdle
processing in two different sequences as shown in Figure 3-1. For PEF/CFMF
processing, untreated milk was microfiltered under the conditions described above in
subsection 2.3, and subsequently, PEF-treated and cooled prior to sampling using the
conditions outlined in subsection 2.2. A reversed sequence for hurdle processing with
CFMF followed by PEF (CFMF/PEF) was also applied with the treatment conditions
previously mentioned in subsections 2.2 and 2.3, respectively, in order to determine

88

which configuration of the nonthermal technologies allowed the most effective cold
pasteurisation of milk.
3.2.5. Conventional heat pasteurisation
Milk was thermally pasteurised in a dual stage heat exchanger unit (UHT/HTST
Lab-25 EDH, Microthermics Inc., Raleigh, NC, USA). Inoculated milk entered the TP
unit at 16 C with a flow rate of 1.0 L/min and was heated to 75 C, passing through a
holding tube for 24 s, prior to cooling of the pasteurised product to 10 C and
subsequent sampling and analysis.
3.2.6. Microbiological shelf life
In order to provide optimum conditions for high shelf stability, separated skim
milk was obtained from the same supplier as for the inactivation analysis (subsection
2.1), stored uninoculated for a short time under refrigeration prior to pre-heating (55 C)
for subsequent homogenization (NS2006H, GEA NiroSoavi S.p.A., Parma, Italy) at 50
and 200 bar for the first and second pressure stages, respectively. This was followed by
cold hurdle or heat preservation treatment of the homogenised product on the same
day. The microbiological shelf life of homogenised milk treated with the most potent
PEF/CFMF approach (4.2 kV/mm, 612 !s, 815 kJ/L) or TP was investigated over a
period of 35 days. Due to the high initial TAMC (FIL-IDF, 1974) of the homogenized raw
milk (6.4 log
10
CFU/ml) on the day of processing, which remained high following either
of the milk preservation treatments (>3.0 log
10
CFU/ml) and consequently, bringing
about a very demanding processing scenario, microbiological shelf life of the processed

89

milk was considered to be expired after exceeding a limit of 5.0 log
10
CFU/ml. This is in
line with reference microbial values for raw milk (Villar and others 1996). Milk samples
were taken in duplicate under sterile conditions before and after homogenization as well
as following the preservation treatments, and after refrigerated storage at 40.1C for 0,
1, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35 days. Extensive microbiological analyses were carried out
based on the spread-plating method for the determination of:
a) TAMC on PCA as previously described in subsection 3.2.1;
b) Total enteric bacteria counts (TEBC) on MacConkey agar (MCA; 211387, BD Difco,
Sparks, MD, USA), incubated at 35 C for 24 h as de scribed in a study by Jocson and
others (1997);
c) Total moulds and yeasts counts (TMYC) on potato dextrose agar (PDA; 254920, BD
Difco, Sparks, MD, USA), incubated at 35 C for 48 h as described by the American
Public Health Association (1992);
d) Total lactic acid bacteria counts (TLABC) on DeMan, Rogosa and Sharpe agar (MRS;
288210, BD Difco, Sparks, MD, USA), incubated at 30 C for 48 h as described in a
study by Mennane and others (2007);
e) Total staphylococci counts (TSC) on Baird Parker agar (BPA; 276840 + 277910, BD
Difco, Sparks, MD, USA), incubated at 37 C for 24 h as described by Rajowkski and
others (1994).
In addition, milk samples were pour-plated with PCA for the analysis of:
f) Total psychrotroph counts (TPC), incubated at 7 C for 240 h as described in the
procedures of the FIL-IDF (1991);

90

g) Total thermoduric psychrotroph counts (TTPC), incubated at 7 C for 240 h based on
the procedural descriptions of FIL-IDF (1991) and Edgell and others (1950);
h) Total thermoduric mesophilic counts (TTMC), incubated at 30 C for 72 h as described
by Frank and others (1985);
i) Total thermoduric thermophilic counts (TTTC), incubated at 55 C for 24 h according to
the descriptions of the FIL-IDF (1991) and Murphy and others (1999).
Pour-plating was accomplished with liquid tempered PCA (18 ml portions, 45 C),
which was poured on 1 ml of the neat or diluted milk sample, previously pipetted in a
sterile petri dish, and distributed by steady rotating and crosswise movements prior to
agar solidification. For thermoduric counts heat exposure of the neat and serial-diluted
milk samples placed in sterile test tubes in a water bath at 63 C for 35 min preceded
the pour-plating.
3.2.7. Electrical conductivity and pH
Measurements of electrical conductivity and pH before and after milk processing
were carried out with a conductivity meter (Oaktron Con 11 Series, Thermo Fisher
Scientific Inc., Newlington, NH, USA) and a pH meter (Accumet AB15, Thermo Fisher
Scientific, Newlington, NH, USA), respectively.
3.2.8. Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis of experimental data was accomplished with Sigmastat
version 3.5 (Systat Software Inc., London, UK). For all treatments, data from three
different batches of milk (n = 3) were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with

91

a level of statistical significance of + = 0.05. In the case of statistical differences,
treatment means were compared with the Holm-Sidak test for multiple pairwise
comparisons.

3.3. Results
3.3.1. Microbial inactivation with PEF, CFMF, CFMF/PEF, PEF/CFMF, and TP
Processing of inoculated skim milk with PEF, CFMF, TP, CFMF/PEF and
PEF/CFMF led to different reductions of native milk microorganisms as shown in Table
3-1. Application of a single processing technology for milk treatment led to the highest
reduction for TP and CFMF (P%0.05); 4.6 and 3.7 log
10
CFU/ml, respectively, while PEF
led to lower microbial inactivation of 2.0, 2.1, 2.3 and 2.5 log
10
CFU/ml for respective
energy densities of 407, 632, 668 and 815 kJ/L compared to TP (P<0.05). Milk
microflora reduction with PEF of 2.3 and 2.5 log
10
CFU/ml similar to CFMF (P%0.05) was
achieved exclusively with the two most potent PEF treatment conditions (668 kJ/L and
815 kJ/L, respectively). By contrast, a combination of CFMF and PEF for a hurdle
treatment of milk led to microbial reductions ranging from 4.1 to 4.9 log
10
CFU/ml, which
was comparable to that of TP (P%0.05). An impact of increased electric field strength,
treatment time and energy density was not observed when PEF or CFMF/PEF was
used. However, a change of the hurdle processing sequence to PEF/CFMF enhanced
the overall processing efficacy from 4.9 to 7.1 log
10
CFU/ml (Table 3-1), thus, indicating
an effect due to the change in PEF treatment parameters on the overall effectiveness of
this hurdle processing approach). Moreover, the most effective PEF/CFMF treatment

92

also achieved a significantly higher reduction of native milk biota than with CFMF, TP
and CFMF/PEF (7.1 vs. 3.7, 4.6, and up to 4.8 log
10
CFU/ml, respectively (P<0.05)).
Stand-alone PEF (up to 2.5 log
10
CFU/ml) and single CFMF (3.7 log
10
CFU/ml)
processing accounted for an additive treatment effect of up to 6.2 log
10
CFU/ml,
consequently, the maximum inactivation of 7.1 log
10
CFU/ml of native microorganisms in
milk with PEF/CFMF hurdle processing marginally fell short of a synergistic treatment
effect (P%0.05). No changes were observed between the pH of untreated milk (5.65)
and PEF-treated (5.66), CFMF-treated (5.69) and TP-treated (5.74) milk (P%0.05). Initial
electrical conductivity of milk (6.58 mS/cm) changed significantly after CFMF treatment
(2.31 mS/cm (P<0.05)) in contrast to PEF (6.50 mS/cm) and TP (6.65 mS/cm), which
had no effect (P%0.05).
3.3.2.Microbial shelf stability of milk processed with PEF/CFMF and TP
The findings of the shelf life analysis for PEF/CFMF and TP-treated milk are
summarised in Table 3-2. There was similar microbial shelf stability for cold
pasteurised milk using the most potent PEF/CFMF hurdle approach (4.2 kV/mm, 612
!s, 815 kJ/L) in comparison to thermally pasteurised milk. Due to a high initial TAMC of
6.4 log
10
CFU/ml prior to homogenisation of the raw skim milk, which did not affect the
TAMC significantly (6.8 log
10
CFU/ml (P%0.05)), a complete inactivation of the microbial
population in milk was achieved neither by PEF/CFMF nor by TP, instead these
treatments reduced microbial loads by 3.1 and 4.3 log
10
CFU/ml, respectively. Similarly,
initial TYMC and TLABC in untreated milk, 5.6 and 6.4 log
10
CFU/ml, respectively, were
reduced to 2.8 and 3.9 log
10
CFU/ml following PEF/CFMF treatment and to 1.8 and 4.6

93

log
10
CFU/ml after TP, respectively. Inactivation below the microbiological detection limit
(1.5 log
10
CFU/ml) was obtained for milk containing initial counts for TSC of 2.0 log
10

CFU/ml, TPC of 1.7 log
10
CFU/ml, and TTTP of 5.6 log
10
CFU/ml, with both processing
technologies. Raw milk TEBC of 3.8 log
10
CFU/ml were reduced by TP below the
detection limit while PEF/CFMF treatment led to a reduction in TEBC to 1.6 log
10

CFU/ml. By contrast, an initial TTMC of 5.6 log
10
CFU/ml was decreased below the
detection limit after PEF/CFMF, whereas a reduction to 1.5 log
10
CFU/ml was attained
with TP. TTPC of untreated milk were originally found to be below the limit of detection.
In spite of slightly higher microbial reductions obtained directly after milk preservation
with PEF/CFMF compared to TP, the microbiological shelf life of skim milk processed
with either method was limited to 7 days of refrigerated storage.

94




Table 3-1. Comparison of reductions in total mesophilic aerobic counts in skim
milk obtained following pulsed electric fields (PEF), cross-flow microfiltration
(CFMF), thermal pasteurisation (TP); combined CFMF/PEF, and PEF/CFMF
treatment
Treatment Maximum Processing
Temperature
(C)
Microbial Reduction
(Log
10
CFU/ml)
PEF
1.6//2105/407
1
40 2.0
a

PEF
2.0/1454/632
1
45 2.1
a

PEF
3.0/983/668
1
47 2.3
ab

PEF
4.2/612/815
1
49 2.5
ab

CFMF 35 3.7
bc

TP 75 4.6
c

CFMF/ PEF
1.6//2105/407
1
40 4.1
c

CFMF/ PEF
2.0/1454/632
1
45 4.1
c

CFMF/ PEF
3.0/983/668
1
47 4.4
c

CFMF/ PEF
4.2/612/815
1
49 4.8
c

PEF
1.6//2105/407
1
/CFMF 40 4.9
c

PEF
2.0/1454/632
1
/CFMF 45 5.3
cd

PEF
3.0/983/668
1
/CFMF 47 5.7
cd

PEF
4.2/612/815
1
/CFMF 49 7.1
d

P
2
- ***
SEM
3
- 0.26
a,b,c,d
Different superscripted letters in the column indicate statistical significance between the two means.
1
Subscripted numbers:
before /, describes the electric field strength [kV/mm] of PEF; between two /, specifies the treatment time [!s] of PEF; after /,
denotes the specific energy density [kJ/L] induced by PEF.
2
P stands for the statistical probability.
3
SEM abbreviates the standard
error of the mean.*** refers to a statistical significance of P<0.001. Microfiltration was conducted using a 1.4 !m pore size and a 660
L/h m
2
transmembrane flux, thermal pasteurisation at 75 C x 24 s; combined MF/PEF, and PEF/MF treatment.


93

For PEF/CFMF-treated milk, TAMC, TEBC, TMYC, and TPC exceeded the shelf
life limit of 5.0 log
10
CFU/ml after 7 storage days accounting for respectively 8.6, 7.6,
5.1, and 7.5 log
10
CFU/ml on day 14 of the shelf life analysis. It was noticeable that the
TAMC, TEBC and TPC followed the same microbial growth pattern over the duration of
the analysis (P%0.05) thus, suggesting that one dominant microorganism, which based
on the observations of the TEBC was non-lactose fermenting and seemed to be able to
grow rapidly under psychrotrophic conditions, accounted for the highest resistivity and
could have been the overall limiting factor for the PEF/CFMF shelf stability. By
comparison, shelf life of milk processed with TP expired when the TAMC passed over
the limit after 7 days of storage and rose slightly to 5.2 log
10
CFU/ml on day 14. Over
the duration of the shelf life analysis TLABC, TSC, TTPC, TTMC and TTTC in
PEF/CFMF-processed milk did not go beyond the limit of microbial stability and safety
and at the same time TP-treated milk remained also shelf stable under refrigeration for
35 days with regard to TEBC, TYMC, TLABC, TSC, TTPC, TTMC and TTTC.
The previous results for pH and electrical conductivity (subsection 3.1) were confirmed
for the first part of the shelf life analysis (i.e. pre and post processing). In addition,
stability of the pH (from 6.19 on day 0 to 6.29 on day 35) and of the conductivity (from
2.06 mS/cm on day 0 to 2.72 mS/cm on day 35) was observed in cold preserved milk
with PEF/CFMF over the duration of the shelf life analysis (P%0.05) as well as for pH
(from 6.94 on day 0 to 6.73 on day 35) and conductivity (from 5.50 mS/cm on day 0 to
5.52 mS/cm on day 35) in conventional, TP-treated milk.

96

Table 3-2. Microbial counts in skim milk before and after pulsed electric fields
(PEF) and cross-flow microfiltration (CFMF) hurdle treatment (PEF/CFMF) or
thermal pasteurisation (TP) during storage
#$%&'( )&*+
)&,-./&.%$
0%.-$1( 2&)(
345
67&%&$* 8.97%:
3*.1
;<
8=>?)*5
@A=?B=:
3*.1
;<
8=>?)*5
2@:
3*.1
;<
8=>?)*5
1oLal aeroblc 0 6.4(0.7) 3.1(0.2) 4.3(0.1)
mesophlles 1 3.1(0.2) 3.9(0.2)
7 4.3(0.1) 4.2(0.2)
14 8.6(0.2) 3.2(0.2)
21 11.8(0.1) 3.7(2.2)
28 12.6(0.1) 7.1(0.0)
33 13.4(0.3) 8.7(0.4)
1oLal enLerlc 0 3.8(0.2) 1.6(0.4) <1.3
8acLerla 1 1.8(0.1) <1.3
7 4.6(0.4) <1.3
14 7.6(0.2) 2.4(1.1)
21 11.7(0.1) <1.3
28 12.3(0.0) 1.7(0.3)
33 13.3(0.1) <1.3
1oLal moulds 0 3.6(0.2) 2.8(0.2) 1.8(0.6)
and yeasLs 1 2.3(0.4) 2.2(0.1)
7 2.3(0.3) 2.1(0.2)
14 3.1(0.4) 2.6(0.1)
21 7.1(1.2) 2.4(0.2)
28 8.3(1.2) 2.6(1.0)
33 10.2(0.1) 2.2(1.3)
1oLal lacLlc acld 0 6.4(0.2) 3.9(0.2) 4.6(0.2)
8acLerla 1 3.6(0.4) 4.3(0.2)
7 3.6(0.4) 4.1(0.1)
14 4.7(0.2) 4.7(0.4)
21 3.6(0.2) 4.6(0.1)
28 4.2(0.2) 4.4(0.0)
33 3.1(0.3) 3.2(0.6)
1oLal sLaphylococcl 0 2.0(0.1) <1.3 <1.3
1 <1.3 <1.3
7 <1.3 <1.3
14 <1.3 <1.3
21 <1.3 <1.3
28 <1.3 <1.3
33 <1.3 <1.3
1oLal psychroLrophs 0 1.7(0.2) <1.3 <1.3
1 1.7(0.1) <1.3
7 4.7(0.2) 1.7(0.1)
14 7.3(0.0) 2.4(1.7)
21 11.4(0.1) 2.3(1.8)
28 12.2(0.1) 3.9(0.3)
33 13.3(0.2) 6.1(0.9)

ConLlnued.


97

1oLal Lhermodurlc 0 <1.3 <1.3 <1.3
psychroLrophs 1 <1.3 <1.3
7 <1.3 3.7(0.1)
14 2.9(0.6) 4.0(0.0)
21 1.7(1.7) 4.3(0.6)
28 3.8(0.3) 4.2(0.4)
33 3.7(1.3) 3.3(0.2)
1oLal Lhermodurlc 0 3.6(0.4) <1.3 1.3(0.2)
mesophlles 1 4.1(0.0) 3.9(0.1)
7 3.0(0.1) 3.7(0.1)
14 3.0(0.0) 3.9(0.1)
21 3.0(1.4) 4.3(0.6)
28 3.3(0.9) 4.2(0.4)
33 4.3(0.9) 3.3(0.2)
1oLal Lhermodurlc 0 3.6(0.1) <1.3 <1.3
Lhermophlles 1 <1.3 2.9(0.1)
7 <1.3 2.9(0.4)
14 <1.3 2.8(0.3)
21 <1.3 3.3(0.3)
28 <1.3 3.4(0.1)
33 <1.3 3.3(0.2)
*Values in parentheses following mean microbial counts indicate the standard deviation. PEF was applied at 4.2 kV/mm and 612 !s
for an energy level of 815 kJ/L, CFMF using a 1.4 !m pore size membrane and a transmembrane flux of 660 L/h m
2
hurdle
treatment and thermal pasteurisation at 75 C for 2 4 s

98

3.4. Discussion
In the present study similar inactivation of native milk biota in bovine skim milk to
that observed for TP was achieved when CFMF was applied individually or followed by
PEF. Research conducted on pre-filtered ovine (Beolchini and others 2004) and bovine
milk (Beolchini and others 2005) microfiltered with 1.4 !m pore diameter CFMF system
using an average permeate flux of approximately 240 L/h m
2
suggested respective
microbial reductions of more than 3.0 (at 40 C) an d 2.0 (at 40 C) to 3.0 (30 C) log
10

CFU/ml, respectively, which is slightly lower than the findings of this study. A possible
reason for the lower antimicrobial impact may have been the use of less sophisticated
CFMF equipment than the Tetra Pak unit used in our study. The latter features uniform
transmembrane pressure (Bird 1996), which can be of considerable impact during
processing. By contrast, Elwell and Barbano (2006) obtained results in agreement with
those of the present study; reporting a mean reduction of total bacteria of 3.8 log
10

CFU/ml in raw skim milk after CFMF processing with 1.4 !m pore size at 50 C using
permeate and retentate flow rates of 462 and 25 L/h, respectively. When the same
researchers (Elwell and Barbano 2006) thermally pasteurised the CFMF permeate at 72
C for 16 s following commercial practice, the bact erial reduction was increased by
another 1.8 log
10
CFU/ml, which overall is comparable to the microbial reduction for
hurdle processed milk in this study but 1.5 log
10
CFU/ml less than the inactivation
achieved with our most effective nonthermal pasteurisation using PEF/CFMF at 4.2
kV/mm for 612 !s with 815 kJ/L. Possible explanations for an increased effectiveness of
PEF/CFMF over CFMF/PEF could be a PEF-induced change in the steric configuration

99

of electroporated microorganisms (Garca and others 2007, Wang and others 2008) or
an increased agglomeration between microorganisms or between microorganisms and
milk components (Hodgson and others 1993, Jimenez-Lopez and others 2008, Zhao
and others 2009) due to electrical charge polarisation after PEF and prior to CFMF. This
may improve the filtration effect and, thus, enhance the overall process efficacy and
microbial reduction in the treated product. Similar inactivation of native microbiota in
skim milk by CFMF of 4.0 log
10
CFU/ml and more was also reported in other studies
(Payfylias and others 1996, Guerra and others 1997, Fritsch and Moraru 2008). The
majority of the findings on conventional heat pasteurisation of milk reported in the
literature (Seplveda-Ahumada and others 2000, El-Hadi Sulieman 2007, and
Odriozola-Serrano and others 2006) were achieved at considerably lower initial TAMC
(4.4, 4.7, and 3.2 log
10
CFU/ml, respectively) than those of the present study, therefore,
resulting in lower respective microbial reductions of 0.6 (72 C for 15 s), 1.9 (65 for 30
min), and approximately 2.2 (75 C for 15 s) than t he 4.6 log
10
CFU/ml obtained for TP
in this study. Nonetheless, there are also studies quoting higher initial counts of 3.6 and
6.7 log
10
CFU/ml, which correspond to comparable (Aaku and others 2004) and higher
(Walkling-Ribeiro and others 2009, using 72 C for 26 s) reductions of TAMC in TP-
treated milk. Nonthermal milk processing with PEF below temperatures of 50 C has led
to broadly comparable reductions in total counts of native microorganisms of up to 1.4,
2.0 and 2.2 log
10
CFU/ml as reported by Floury and others (2006) (< 50 C, 3.5 kV/mm,
188 !s), Fernndez-Molina and others (2005) (<32 C, 3.6 kV/mm, 84 !s), and Otunola
and others (2008) (4.0 kV/mm, 360 !s), respectively, which is in accordance with the
findings for the stand-alone PEF treatment of skim milk described in this study. Higher

100

and lower microbial inactivation of 5.4 and 1.2 log
10
CFU/ml of native flora in milk PEF-
treated under cold processing conditions have also been reported by Li and others
(2003) (<50 C, 4.1 kV/mm, 54 !s) and Seplveda-Ahumada and others (2000) (<30
C, 3.5 kV/mm, 30 pulses), respectively. These diff erences are possibly the result of
more or less effective PEF treatment conditions and PEF equipment, and variations in
the microbial composition of the milk. Likewise, substantial volatility in the reduction of
total aerobic counts in PEF-processed milk of 1.3, 2.4, 2.7, 3.0, and 6.0 log
10
CFU/ml
was obtained when PEF was applied alone, or in combination with a heat treatment, at
moderate processing temperatures of 50 C or above as indicated by results of different
research groups, including Smith and others (2002), using 52 C, 8.0 kV/mm, 100 !s;
Shamsi and others (2008), using 60 C, 3.5 kV/mm, 1 9.6 !s; Michalac and others
(2003), using 52 C, 3.5 kV/mm, 188 !s; Fernndez-Molina and others (2005), using
PEF at 3.2 kV/mm for 84 !s and post-heating at 60 C for 21 s; and Walkling -Ribeiro
and others (2009), pre-heating at 50 C for 60 s, a nd using PEF at 4.0 kV/mm for 60 !s;
respectively. Exposing the microorganisms to moderate (%50 to 65 C) instead of the
cold (<50 C) PEF/CFMF milk hurdle pasteurisation used in this study (by either
incorporating an additional heating step in the processing sequence or application of
more powerful PEF settings that cause a higher concurrent dissipation of heat during
product treatment) is likely to increase the overall effectiveness of the PEF/CFMF hurdle
technology even further and achieve a synergistic effect. However, a decrease in
nutritional and sensory quality of the processed milk may occur depending on the heat
impact (De Luis and others 2009). However, the temperatures achieved by the PEF
treatment could still have a considerably lower effect on the product quality due to lower

101

temperature levels and much shorter treatment times in the !s range by comparison to
those minimally required by law for TP (72 C, 15 s ).
The effect of single TP (72 C, 15 s) and in combin ation with CFMF (1.4 !m, 200
L/h m
2
) on the microbiological shelf stability of milk stored at 4 C with a bacterial limit of
4.3 log
10
CFU/ml was investigated by Elwell and Barbano (2006), who observed longer
shelf life of 29 d for CFMF/TP than for TP-treated milk (15 d). Malmberg and Holm
(1998) also stated that addition of CFMF after conventional pasteurisation can
potentially increase overall shelf life of milk by 2 to 3 times, from 6 to 8 days up to 16 to
21 days before expiry. The former shelf life range of conventionally pasteurised milk
coincided with the shelf life of 7 days found for both TP and PEF/CFMF-treated milk in
the present study, which, in turn, is broadly in line with the findings of Odriozola-Serrano
and others (2006). The latter study described milk that was microbiologically stable for 5
days at 4 C following TP and PEF treatment at 75 C, 15 s and 3.6 kV/mm for 1000 !s,
respectively. Fernndez-Molina and others (2005) generally showed a 7 day shelf life
(<5.0 log
10
CFU/ml) of refrigerated skim milk after PEF treatment when using 2.8 to 3.6
kV/mm for 84 !s, which corresponds to the results of this study, but combination with
subsequent heat treatments at 60 or 65 C for 21 s led to a significant increase of
product shelf stability of up to 30 days at 4 C st orage. In more comprehensive studies
by Walkling-Ribeiro and others (2009) and Sepulveda and others (2009) the impact of
specific microbial groups on the microbial shelf life of milk at 4 C was studied following
treatments with combined heat (50 C, 60 s) and PEF (<55 C, 4.0 kV/mm, 60 !s) or TP
(72 C, 26 s), and heat-generating PEF (65 C, <10 s; 3.5 kV/mm, 13 !s) or TP (72 C,
15 s), respectively. The first group of researchers (Walkling-Ribeiro and others, 2009)

102

found that heat- and PEF-treated milk was stable for the entire 21-day period of the
microbial shelf life analysis in contrast to TP-treated milk, which expired after 14 days of
storage. As the investigated microbial groups of lactobacilli, pseudomonads, coliforms
and non-lactose fermenters, and staphylococci showed generally no significant or
detectable growth after either preservation treatment, psychrotrophs other than
pseudomonads and endo-sporeforming bacteria were suggested as comprising the milk
shelf life limiting microbiota (e.g. Streptococcus, Arthrobacter, Corynebacterium,
Microbacterium, and Bacillus subspecies). The results for PEF preservation obtained by
the other research group (Sepulveda and others, 2009) were different suggesting that
the microbial shelf life limit of milk treated with heat-generating PEF was exceeded after
22 days while TP-treated milk was shelf stable for 44 days. The growth of mesophiles
exceeding the limit after 44 days was identified as a shelf life limiting factor and not
enterobacteria or psychrotrophs. The discrepancy in shelf stability of milk between the
results obtained for PEF/CFMF and for TP in the present study and the findings for
heat-assisted PEF or TP treatments described in the literature could be explained by
the substantially higher initial load of microorganisms prior to milk processing and the
difference in the composition of the microbial milk populations, which may also be a
reason for the deviations with regard to the most recalcitrant groups of native microbiota
limiting the overall shelf life of hurdle preserved or conventionally pasteurised milk. The
decline in electrical conductivity following CFMF was attributed to a reduction in nutrient
content (Brans and others, 2004; Guerra and others, 1997; Jimenez-Lopez and others,
2008).

103

Combining PEF and CFMF in a hurdle technology for cold pasteurisation of milk
proved to be more effective than conventional TP and even higher antimicrobial efficacy
of PEF/CFMF for longer preservation of the microbial milk shelf life can be expected if
the processing temperature is increased to a moderate level (%50 to 65 C), which will
have a greater impact on total aerobic counts, in particular, enteric bacteria,
psychrotrophs and moulds and yeasts. Due to the promising results obtained in the
present study and the high commercialization potential, further research on the
optimization of this nonthermal hurdle technology with a focus on the specific
requirements for different milk products (moderately heat-assisted PEF/CFMF
processing for higher microbial safety and shelf stability vs. cold PEF/CFMF
processing for higher nutritional and sensory quality) is recommended. In addition, the
interactions or mechanisms at the molecular level following PEF milk treatment, which
were responsible for an increased antimicrobial efficacy of the PEF/CFMF over the
CFMF/PEF processing sequence, merit in-depth analysis.

104

4. Resistance of temperature, pH, osmotic and starvation stress induced
Escherichia coli O157:H7 to pulsed electric fields in milk
4.1. Introduction
The injury and the repair of microorganisms after inactivation with PEF has been
studied to gain an insight into the shelf-life of products treated with this using technology
(Aronsson and others 2004, Garca and others 2006). Although similar studies have
been carried out on other processing technologies (Hayman and others 2007, Teo and
others 2001), few studies have examined the exposure of microorganisms to sub-
optimal growth conditions and their subsequent resistance to PEF inactivation.
Exposure of microorganisms to challenging environmental conditions can trigger
stress response mechanisms, including the expression of genes related to the
production of shock proteins (Chung and others 2006, Hill and others 2002). A study by
Lou and Yousef (1996) showed that when Listeria monocytogenes was previously
exposed to sub-lethal levels of heterologous stresses an increased resistance to heat
was obtained. This phenomenom has been referred to as a cross-protective effect.
Cross-protection is similar to the expression of cross-resistance among chemicals, and
in relation to food processing it has been reviewed by several authors (Rodrguez-Romo
and Yousef 2005, Juneja and Novak 2003, Johnson 2003, Ravishankar and Juneja
2003).
When studying cross-protection, Rowe and Kirk (1999) emphasized the
importance of analyzing the inactivation kinetics by means of accurate models that can
be incorporated into an appropriate risk assessment. In an attempt to develop a

103

mechanistic approach to monitor sub-lethal injury Gawande and Griffiths (2005a) used
constructs of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in which the promoters for genes encoding
major stress response proteins were fused to a green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene.
They were then able to identify conditions that led to the expression of these stress
response proteins and relate them to the ability of the organism to survive subsequent
stresses (Gawande and Griffiths 2005b).
The dairy industry has incorporated several predictive models to describe
microbial growth and inactivation (Griffiths 1994). In general, growth models have been
evaluated for their ability to predict lag phase and growth rates based on viable counts
and turbidimetric data (Dalgaard and others 1994; Dalgaard and Koutsoumanis 2001,
McKellar and Lu 2004b). The Baranyi model (Baranyi and others 1993; Baranyi and
Roberts 1994; Baranyi and others 1995) has been widely used because of the
availability of virtual resources that ease the calculation of growth parameters, and has
been proposed to describe inactivation kinetics (Ngadi and Dehghannya 2010). Lag
phase and growth rates are the parameters most greatly affected by changes to
temperature or pH in secondary models (Zwiettering and others 1991; Rosso and others
1995; Juneja and others 2007; Juneja and others 2009). Application of these models
has led to innovations in predictive environmental and food microbiology, as well as
quantitative risk assessment (McMeekin and others 2008).
Due to the non-linear nature of microbial inactivation, and the requirement of a
multi-parametric approach for modelling pulsed electric field (PEF) treatments, the
Weibull distribution has been successfully applied to describe PEF inactivation (Rodrigo

106

and others 2003, Garca and others 2005), and further modifications of this model were
implemented to enable a comparison of microbial resistance using a z
PEF
value (lvarez
and others 2003a, lvarez and others 2003b, Rodrguez-Calleja and others 2006). With
the development of the WeLL (Weibullian-log logistic) model microbial inactivation that
allows the variation of the inactivation rate due to temperature and other lethal agents to
be determined, the effect of dynamic conditions during microbial inactivation can now be
predicted (Peleg and Cole 2000, Fernndez and others 1999, Campanella and Peleg
2001, Peleg and Normand 2004).
The objective of this research was the mathematical analysis of the growth,
stress response and inactivation of a biological indicator (E. coli O157:H7) by using
predictive models. Escherichia coli O157:H7 was subjected to different stress factors,
simulating characteristic dairy processing conditions, and subsequently exposed to
PEF. The data were analyzed using a variety of modelling techniques.

4.2. Materials and Methods
4.2.1. Microorganism
An E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 43888 (American Type Culture Collection, Manassas,
VA, USA) was chosen as the model microorganism due to the absence of the genes
that encode shiga toxins I and II (Stx1
-
, Stx2
-
).

107

4.2.2. Growth medium preparation
Bacterial growth limits were evaluated in two broths: lactose broth (LACB;
DIFCO
TM
Lactose Broth, 211835, Becton Dickinson and Company, Sparks, MD, USA),
and tryptic soy broth (TSB; BACTO
TM
Tryptic Soy Broth without dextrose, 286220)
supplemented with 0.5% lactose (102137, D-(+)-lactose monohydrate, MP Biomedicals,
Solon, OH, USA) to make up TSBL.
The growth of the bacterium was also analyzed in modified TSBL. The medium
pH of 7.0 was adjusted by using lactic acid (LA; A162, Fisher Scientific, Fairlawn, NJ,
USA) or acetic acid (AA; A35, Fisher Scientific, Fairlawn, NJ, USA) to final pH values of
6.0, 5.0, and 4.0, which was monitored with a pH meter (AB 15 Accumet Basic, Fisher
Scientific, Hampton, NH, USA). To determine the effect of water activity, sodium
chloride (NaCl; S7653, Sigma-Aldrich Co., St. Louis, MO, USA) was added to final
concentrations of 5.0%, 7.5%, or 10.0% weight by volume including the initial medium
NaCl content of 0.5%. The addition of NaCl resulted in water activity values of 0.999,
0.946, 0.920, and 0.894, respectively, as analyzed in a water activity meter (AquaLab
model CX-2, Decagon, Pullman, WA, USA).
For the generation of the growth curves 1:100 of a stationary phase E. coli
O157:H7 population, incubated at 35 C for 24 h, wa s used to inoculate LACB or TSBL
placed in a 4 x 6 well flat bottom microplate (Corstar 3526, Corning Incorporated, NY,
USA) at 2.0 ml per well, and incubated at temperatures of 5, 7, 12, 28, 35, 45, and 48
C.

108

4.2.3. Construction of stress reporters
Plasmids containing the gfp
uv
reporter gene fused to the respective promoters
uspA (universal stress protein A), rpoS (RNA polymerase sigma factor), and grpE
(glucose-regulated protein) were extracted from E. coli O157:H7 C9490 obtained from
the culture collection of the Canadian Research Institute for Food Safety (strain ID: C
476). A QIA prep spin miniprep kit 50 (27104, Qiagen, Germantown, MA, USA) was
used to obtain plasmid concentrations between 70 and 150 ng/!L as estimated
spectrophotometrically (Nanodrop 1000, Thermo Fisher Scientific Wilmington, DE,
USA). These plasmid preparations were kept frozen at -20 C until used. Exponential
phase E. coli O157:H7 (ATCC 4388) cells were harvested after 7 h of growth at 37 C in
Luria-Bertani broth (LB; Miller, 244620, Becton Dickinson and Company, Sparks, MD,
USA), and prepared for electroporation by dilution in ice-cold distilled water containing
10% glycerol. The cell suspensions (25 !L) were combined with the plasmids (5 !L) in a
0.2 cm gap micro pulser cuvette (165-2086, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, CA, USA)
and one exponential decay pulse of 2.5 V of 2480 ms (25 !F, 200 &) generated by a
Gene Pulser Xcell electroporation system (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, CA, USA)
was applied as in the pre-set bacterial cell protocol (Bio-Rad, 2010). After stabilizing in
S.O.C. medium (15544-034, Invitrogen, Carlsband, CA, USA) the transformants were
selected by growing the cells in LB broth supplemented with 50 !g/ml of ampicillin
sodium salt (BP1760, Fisher Scientific, Fairlawn, NJ, USA).
All of the cells for biosensor analysis were grown at 35 C for 24 hours to reach
the stationary phase in LB. Starvation stress was induced after centrifuging (Avanti J-20

109

XPI centrifuge, Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA) the cell suspension at 5000 ! g-1 for
5 min at 4 C, re-suspending it to 1:10 of its orig inal volume with filtered (0.22 !m pore
size) distilled water, and incubating the bacteria at 25 C for 100 hours. Subsequently,
the samples were transferred to microplates and examined as detailed in Section 4.2.4.
To induce cold shock the cell suspension was cooled to 5 C and 1.5 ml of the
suspensions were transferred into micro-centrifuge tubes (05-408-129, Fisher Scientific
Company, Hampton, NH, USA) every 24 h, pelleted using a microcentrifuge
(Spectrafuge 16M, Labnet International, Woodbridge, NJ, USA) and re-suspended to
1:10 of its original volume with Ringers solution (BR0052, Oxoid Ltd. Basingstoke,
Hampshire, England) for a final volume of 150 !L per sample.
4.2.4. Monitoring of the physiological state
Absorbance and fluorescence were both measured with a 1420 Multilabel
counter Victor
3
V (Perkin Elmer, Turku, Findland). Duplicate absorbance (450 nm)
measurements were recorded after placing the cells in 24-well micro-plates, with 1.0 s
of shaking in between readings. Fluorescence was measured in duplicate after placing
the cells in an 8 x 12 well black with clear bottom assay plates (Corstar 3603, Corning
Incorporated, NY, USA) at wavelengths of 485 nm for excitation and 535 nm for
emission. For each stress response promoter::gfp construct relative fluorescence
intensity (RFI) and response ratios (R) (derived from Zhang and Griffiths 2003;
Gawande and Griffiths 2005ab) were estimated following Eq. 4-1 and Eq. 4-2,
respectively.

110

153
-B

" 653
<
-B

/653
<
<M
Eq. 4-1
1

" 153
q

153
.

Q Eq. 4-2
4.2.5. PEF treatment
For PEF treatment 10
4
to 10
7
CFU/ml of microbial cells grown as described in
Section 4.2.2, and presented in Table 4-2, were used for inoculation (5 % of the total
volume) of 2% micro-filtered milk (Lactantia P,r Filtre, Parmalat SpA, Montreal, QC,
Canada) and pumped (Masterflex pump drive 7524-40 and pump head 77201-60, Cole
Parmer Instrument Co., Vernon Hills, IL, USA) continuously through silicone tubing to a
PEF chamber. Before entering the chamber the inoculated milk passed through a
stainless steel coil submerged in a water bath (Isotemp 10L, Fisher Scientific, Hampton,
NH, USA) to pre-heat the product to an initial temperature of 30 C at the chamber
entrance. Exponential decay shaped electric pulses were applied in a co-axial treatment
chamber consisting of one vertical rod shaped ground electrode and one ring-shaped
stainless steel charging electrode centered on the ground, and mounted in a circular
ring-shaped metal segment. The latter was threaded into plastic segments for
insulation. The PEF treatment chamber has been previously described and applied by
Walkling-Ribeiro and others (2010) but for the present study only one ring shaped
electrode was charged. Between the electrodes a gap of 2.5 mm was maintained, and
the effective electrode treatment area and volume were 49 cm
2
and 3.52 cm
3
,
respectively. The 1.5 !s width pulses were generated in a PEF unit designed at the
University of Waterloo (PPS 30, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada). The
temperature of the product leaving the chamber outlet was between 32 to 57 C and

111

was immediately cooled to 10 C by passing it throu gh coiled tubing submerged in a
refrigerated water bath (NESLAB RTE-7, Thermo Scientific, Newington, NH, USA).
Treatment conditions comprised an electric field between 0.8 and 2.8 kV/mm,
frequencies of 15 or 25 Hz and flow rates of 1.8 or 3.0 L/h. Treatment times were
calculated using the product flow rate measured at the product outlet, which was
adjusted between 10.8 and 1.8 L//h. Three setups treatment conditions were used: 1)
1.8 kV/mm and 20 Hz at 9.0, 7.5, 6.0, 4.5, 3.0 and 1.5 L/h; 2) 2) 1.8 kV/mm and 20 Hz
at 10.8, 9.0, 7.2, 5.4, 3.6, and 1.8 L/h, and 3) 2.4 kV/mm and 20 Hz at 10.8, 9.0, 7.2,
5.4, 3.6, and 1.8 L/h. The specific energy was estimated based on the charging
capacitance for exponential decay pulses as indicated by Zhang and others (1995).
4.2.6. Microbial counts
Serial dilutions of untreated and treated samples were made in Ringers solution,
and 50 !L of the appropriate dilution were spread on the surface of milk agar plates
(CM0681, Oxoid Ltd. Basignstoke, Hampshire, England) using a Spiral Plater (Spiral
Btotech, Bethesda, MD, USA). The plates were incubated at 35 C for 48h, and counts
determined (Laird and others 2004).
4.2.7. Mathematical Analysis
Mathematical analyses were conducted using Mathematica 7 version 7.0.1.0
(Wolfram Research, Inc. Champaign, IL, USA), and the DMFit Microsoft Excel add-in
(Institute of Food Research, Norwich UK), and statistical analysis with R 2.12.0 (R

112

Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) in conjunction with R
Commander 1.6-1 (McMaster University, Burlington, ON, Canada).
Growth rates and lag phases were calculated using the Baranyi model (Baranyi
and Roberts 1994) as explained by Eqs. 4-3 and 4-4, and correlated to pH and water
activity (aw) with the Ratkowsky model (Eq. 4-5) and to temperature using the Cardinal
model (Eqs. 4-6 to 4-8) because its goodness-of-fit and capabilities to estimate optimum
growth conditions. Stress response was modeled using the Logistic (Eq. 4-9), Gompertz
(Eq. 4-10), and Weibull growth (Eq. 4-11) models.
The Weibull model was fitted using the natural logarithm of the surviving
population (Couvert and others 2005; Eq. 4-12), and the mean treatment time was
calculated (Eq. 4-13; Fernndez and others 1999) as an indicator of microbial sensitivity
or resistance based in the model distribution. The WeLL (Weibullian-log logisitc) model
(Eqs. 4-14 and 4-15) was applied to account for PEF generated heat (Corradini and
Peleg 2009, Peleg and Normand 2004, Campanella and Peleg 2001 (Table 4-1).
Several mathematical models can be used to describe inactivation non-linearity (Juneja
and Marks 2003), in this study only the Weibull model was considered because of its
flexibility to describe PEF inactivation, and the availability of studies that provide
comparable data (Alvarez and others 2003, Rodrguez-Calleja and others 2006). The
goodness-of-fit was compared based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and the
Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) as described by Juneja and others (2007, 2009),
and the means of the parameters for each treatment were compared using one or multi-
way ANOVA and Tukey statistical tests.



"
"
#

Table 4-1. Mathematical models used to analyze Escherichia coli O157:H7 during stress induced growth and its
resistance to subsequent pulsed electric field processing in milk.
Microbial
activity
Model Equation

Adapted from
Growth
(time)
Baranyi

!"#$%& ' !"#
(
) *+
,-.
/!$%&0
12$3 4 5 & / 6783 ) **9
:;
<
/=
>?@
/A$B&C
1 30 9
:;
D
/$AEF
>?@
GAEF
H
&C
5 0IJ

!$%& ' % )2$3 K 5 & / 678*9
:G$L/B&C
) M
(
0 3 ) 5 M
(
IJ

Eq. 4-3



Eq. 4-4
Ngadi and
Dehghannya
(2010), Aronsson
and others (2004),
McKellar and Lu
(2004b), Baranyi
and Roberts (1994)
Growth
(Environment)
Ratkowski

+
,-.
' N / $O 1 O
,PQ
&
R
/ $ST 1 ST
,PQ
& /*U
V
1U
V
,PQ
0

Eq. 4-5

Zwiettering and
others (1991)
Cardinal

+
,-.
' +
WXB
/Y$O& / Z$ST& / [$U
V
&

Y$O& ' \
O ] O
,PQ
O
,PQ
] O ] O
,-.
O
,-.
] O




Eq. 4-6


Eq. 4-7

Rosso and others
(1998)
O
,PQ
] O ] O
,-.
_
$O 1O
,PQ
&
R
/ $O 1O
,-.
&
*O
WXB
1 O
,PQ
0 / 8*O
WXB
1O
,PQ
0 / *O 1 O
WXB
0 1 *O
WXB
1 O
,-.
0 / *O
WXB
) O
,PQ
1 `O0I



Eq. 4-9

Stress
response
Logistic

a$%& ' a
,PQ
)*$a
,-.
1 a
,PQ
& *3 ) 9
:Gb/$BGB
c
&C
0 5 0


Eq. 4-11

McKellar and Lu
(2004b)
Gompertz

a$%& ' a
,PQ
)d$a
,-.
1a
,PQ
& /9
eGf
8g/*hih
c
0I
j
k


Eq. 4-12

McKellar and Lu
(2004b)
Weibull

a$%& ' a
,-.
1 2$a
,-.
1a
,PQ
& /9
:G$l/B&
>
C
J


Eq. 4-13

Lpez and others
(2004)



"
"
#

Inactivation
Weibull

!"#$%&'( ) *%& + , '
-


&
.
) + /0%1 23
45
'

Eq. 4-14

Eq. 4-15

Peleg and Penchina
(2000), Mafart and
others (2002),
Fernndez and
others (1999)
WeLL
(Weibullian
Log-
logistic)

!67#$%&'( ) *8%9' / :
;


8%9' ) !"<1 2 =
#>/%?4?
@
'(
A

Eq. 4-16

Eq. 4-17

Corradini and Peleg
(2009),Peleg and
Normand (2004)

a can be denoted as the time for the first decimal reduction if n = 1.

Curves can be described as convex with n>1 or concave with n<1.

113

4.3. Results and discussion
4.3.1. Growth environment
Tryptic Soy Broth with added lactose (TSBL) allowed the growth to a higher
concentration (ABS
450
) of E. coli O157:H7, and higher challenging temperature
conditions (7 to 45 C) compared to the lower nutri ent density medium LACB (10 to 45
C). In Figure 4-1A the Cardinal model was used to describe the variation in the growth
rates between 7 and 45 C. The analysis indicated o ptimum growth temperatures at
31.7 and 27.5 C, and maximum growth rates of 0.03 and 0.07 h
-1
when the organism
was grown in LACB (Adjusted-R
2
of 0.912; standard error of fit of 0.003) or TSBL
(Adjusted-R
2
0.980; standard error of fit of 0.004), respectively. When growth rates in
media in which the pH was adjusted using AA or LA were analyzed (Figure 4-1B), the
minimum pH for required growth was 5.2 (Adjusted-R
2
of 0.992; standard error of fit of
0.011) and 4.8 (Adjusted-R
2
0.988 and standard error of fit of 0.013), respectively. The
minimum aw for growth was estimated to be 0.915 (Adjusted-R
2
of 0.974 and standard
error of fit of 0.016) as shown in Figure 4-1C. The presence of lactose has been shown
to enable E. coli to grow at temperatures as high as 44.5 C, and )-galactosidase
production was increased in the presence of high NaCl (10%) cocentrations (Anderson
and others 1979). Also TSB supplemented with 0.5% lactose was reported to increase
the recovery of heat injured (at 55.5 C for 50 min ) L. monocytogenes F5069, similar to
the case of glucose and sucrose supplements (Busch and Donnelly 1992).


116



(Continued)
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0 10 20 30 40 50
G
r
o
w
t
h

r
a
t
e
,

!
m
a
x
(
1
/
s
)
Temperature ("C)
TSBL
LACB
Series3
Series4
A
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0
G
r
o
w
t
h

r
a
t
e
,

!
m
a
x
(
1
/
s
)
pH
LA
AA
LA Fitted
AA Fitted
B

117



Figure 4-1. Growth rates of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in various growth media,
predicted by the Cardinal (A = temperature; B = acid) and Ratkowski (C = NaCl)
models. LACB = lactose broth (gray circle), TSBL = tryptic soy broth with 0.5%
added lactose (black circle), AA = acetic acid (black circles), LA = lactic acid (grey
circles), NaCl = sodium chloride, aw = water activity (black circles).
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.875 0.900 0.925 0.950 0.975 1.000
G
r
o
w
t
h

r
a
t
e
,
!
m
a
x
(
1
/
s
)
Water activity (a
w
)
Aw
Aw fitted
C
10 8 6 4 2 0
% NaCl
a
w

118

4.3.2. Stress response
The analysis of the trends pertaining to the response ratios (R) of the stress
reporters constructs showed similar goodness-of-fit for the three models and the three
promoters, with the exception of a significantly higher AIC (P < 0.05) observed in the
logistic model of the rpoS gene response (Table 4-2). Because AIC and BIC values
close to zero indicate a good fit, the Weibull growth model may represent the best
choice for future studies. Overall, high correlation coefficients (adjusted R
2
) were
observed for all of the investigated models and treatments. In starved cells the predicted
R
max
for grpE had the lowest stress RR (P < 0.05), in contrast to cold shocked cells in
which the lowest stress RR (P < 0.05) was observed for rpoS indicating that because its
higher RRs uspA may be the best promoter to monitor microbial stress (Table 4-2). The
slower response to cold shock was reflected by lower reaction rates (r) or scale
parameters (g) in the Weibull model. In Figure 4-2 mechanistic and probabilistic models
are presented, which explain the response ratio of the uspA and rpoS gene promoters.
The general stress response gene regulator (rpoS) which encodes the sigma
factor ("
S
) is the most studied with regard to stress response in Gram negative bacteria
(Chung and others 2006, Hill and others 2002). For example, Rowe and Kirk (1999)
removed the rpoS gene from E. coli O157:H7 to create a mutant to study the effect of
the exposure to acid conditions on the cross-protection to NaCl, and Leenanon and
Drake (2001) compared a normal E. coli O157:H7 with an rpoS mutant to study cross
protection resistance to heat and freeze-thawing observing higher resistances in the
cross protected normal E. coli O157:H7.



"
"
#

Table 4-2. Models goodness-of-fit (AIC, BIC and adjusted R
2
), and coefficients (R
max
, r, t
i
, g, m), resulting from
analysis of fluorescence response of Escherichia coli O157:H7 stress gene promoters after induced stress
(starvation or cold-shock).
Biosensor
(stress gene
reporter
plasmid)
Estimates
Starvation Cold Shocked
Gompertz Logistic Weibull Gompertz Logistic Weibull
puspA::gfp
UV

AIC
9.9
!"
18.3
!"
-2.8
!
-2.7
#
2.3
#
-6.0
#

prpoS::gfp
UV
19.1
!"
25.6
"
4.2
!"
4.3
#
4.9
#
1.8
#

pgrpE::gfp
UV
3.3
!"
3.4
!"
2.1
!"
7.4
#
7.4
#
6.5
#

puspA::gfp
UV

BIC
12.4
$
20.9
$
-0.3
$
-2.6
%
2.4
%
-5.8
%

prpoS::gfp
UV
18.4
$
28.1
$
6.8
$
4.6
%
5.2
%
2.2
%

pgrpE::gfp
UV
4.6
$
4.7
$
3.5
$
7.4
%
7.4
%
6.6
%

puspA::gfp
UV

Adjusted R
2
0.974
&
0.974
&
0.998
&
0.994
'
0.993
'
0.992
'

prpoS::gfp
UV
0.995
&
0.991
&
0.998
&
0.993
'
0.994
'
0.977
'

pgrpE::gfp
UV
0.993
&
0.986
&
0.994
&
0.989
'
0.989
'
0.993
'

puspA::gfp
UV

R
max

5.8
(
5.7
(
6.1
(
5.9
)
5.4
)
7.7
)

prpoS::gfp
UV

6.6
(
6.5
(
7.4
(
3.5
*
3.4
*
3.2
*

pgrpE::gfp
UV

2.2
+
2.1
+
2.2
+
5.2
)
4.9
)
6.6
)

puspA::gfp
UV

r (g

)
0.123
,
0.193
,
17.1
-
0.017
.
0.027
.
206.1
/

prpoS::gfp
UV
0.100
,
0.147
,
22.4
-
0.013
.
0.023
.
123.5
/

pgrpE::gfp
UV
0.603
,
0.580
,
5.3
-
0.015
.
0.025
.
225.9
/

puspA::gfp
UV

t
i
(p

)
8.4
0
11. 5
0
1.1
1
11.7
2
12.5
2
0.1
3

prpoS::gfp
UV
8.9
0
12.8
0
0.9
1
1.5
2
6.3
2
0.6
3

pgrpE::gfp
UV
3.6
0
4.6
0
2.0
1
2.8
2
1.2
2
1.0
3

Weibull model coeffients.

!,",#,$,%,&,',(,+,),*,,, -,., /, 0, 1,2,3
Greek letters indicate that means within inactivation parameters were statistically different within their group at P < 0.05 using the
Tukey procedure. Rmax = maximum response ratio, r = response rate, ti = time to response (equivalent to lag phase), AIC = Akaike Information Coefficient, BIC = Bayesian Information
Coefficient.

120



Figure 4-2. . Response ratios of Escherichia coli O157:H7 fluorescence gene
promoters (grey circles = uspA::gfp
UV
; black circles = rpoS::gfp
UV
) fitted by
mathematical models (regular line = Weibull; dashed line = logistic). A =
Starvation, B = Cold Shock. See Eq. 1 and Eq. 2 for Response Ratio (R).
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
R
e
s
p
o
n
s
e

r
a
t
i
o

(
R
)
time (h)
uspA
rpoS
Logistic: uspA
Logistic: rpoS
Weibull: uspA
Weibull: rpoS
Logistic
Weibull
A
uspA::gfp
UV
rpoS::gfp
UV
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
R
e
s
p
o
n
s
e

r
a
t
i
o

(
R
)
time (h)
uspA
rpoS
Logistic: uspA
Logistic: rpoS
Weibull: uspA
Weibull: rpoS
Logistic
Weibull
B
uspA::gfp
UV
rpoS::gfp
UV

121

As previously observed by Zhang and Griffiths (2003), higher fluorescence units
were obtained from the puspA::gfp
uv
reporter plasmid, with variations depending on the
method applied to analyze fluorescence. While puspA::gfp
uv
may give higher response
ratios, a conservative approach may be to analyze all the three gene reporters when
studying new stresses. As observed by Gawande and others (2005ab) there is a
variation in responses within the gene reporters with stresses, and also with time.
Hence, trends analysis may contribute to better understanding on simultaneous
responses.
4.3.3.Cross-protection to physical hurdles
Bacterial cells were harvested after exposure to different environmental stress
conditions (Table 4-3). E. coli cells grown in LACB resulted in similar mean times (t
c
) as
determined with the Weibull model (P % 0.05). On the other hand, cells grown in TSBL
varied in their resistance to PEF. The E. coli cells were significantly more susceptible to
PEF (P < 0.05) when grown at 7 C compared to those exposed to acid (LA) and high
NaCl content (low a
w
). Bacteria grown in TSBL at 45 C showed the highe st resistance
to the PEF treatment (P < 0.05) (Table 4-3). Starved and cold shocked cells also
showed similar tc values, which, as a result of a higher electric field, were two to five
times lower than the previous treatments (PEF treatments 1 and 2).




"
#
#

Table 4-3. Growth and stress conditions of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and its relative resistance to pulsed electric
fields (PEF).


Pre-processing conditions

Physiological status

PEF Processing Resistance

Medium
Tempe-
rature
time
Status at
inactivation
Method of
monitoring
Electric
Field
frequency tc
(C) (h) (kV/mm) (Hz) (!s)
10 100
Stationary
phase
Photometry 1.8 20
99.5
"

LACB 25 25 70.3
"

40 25 87.3
"

TSBL 7 150
Stationary
phase
Photometry 1.8 20
97.4
#

TSBL pH 5.0 (LA) 35 150 168.4
$

TSBL 7.5% NaCl 35 150 153.0
$

TSBL 45 25 240.9
%

LB

35 20 Non-stressed
Fluorometry 2.4 20
24.3
&

LB
5 50
Cold stressed
40.3
&

5 250 54.6
&

Water 25 100
Starvation
stress

46.2
&


",#,$,%,&
Greek letters indicate means within inactivation parameters that are statistically different at P < 0.05 using the Tukey pairwise comparison test.

Non-shocked control. LACB =

lactose broth, TSBL = tryptic soy broth supplemented with 0.5 % lactose, LA = lactic acid, LB = Luria-Bertani broth, Miller, tc = mean time calculated according to the model.

Absorbance values determined at 450 nm, fluorescence values determined using 485 nm 535 nm filters for excitation and emission respectively from the rpoS promoter gene reporter.


123

A detailed analysis of the inactivation trends resulted in downwards concavity for
all the treatments; with similar magnitude in the scale and shape parameters of the
LACB treatments as for the cell exposed to stress (Table 4-4). In the TSBL grown cells
the scale parameter (a) showed similar variation as the tc with a significantly lower
value (P < 0.05) for E. coli cells grown at 7 C and higher (P < 0.05) for thos e grown at
45 C. By contrast, the shape parameter ( n) was found to be different in bacteria grown
in acid environments compared to those grown at 45 C (P < 0.05). Physiologically t
c

can be used as a global indicator of microbial health as it reflects the mean of the
distribution of resistances in the population, in the other hand, the shape parameter
indicates potential shouldering or tailing, which result from a genetically protected or
mutant population to low or high intensity treatments, respectively (Juneja and others
1998, Hayman 2007). At a constant shape factor, the scale parameter (calculated using
the appropriate model) has been incorporated in secondary models (z values) to reflect
microbial resistance considering a broader temperature or pH range (Couvert and
others 2005).
Power dissipation produces a joule heating effect (Heinz and others 2002), which
can be called PEF dissipated heat. Analysis of the product temperature showed that the
PEF treatment of E. coli cells at 1.8 kV/mm and 20 Hz using PEF treatment 1 (Figure 4-
3A) resulted in a steeper increase of dissipated heat into the inoculated milk compared
to treatment 2 (Figure 4-3B) with the highest temperature below 50 C. In the case of
the milk PEF treatment at 2.4 kV/mm and 20 Hz (Figure 4-3C) the increase in
temperature was even higher with time, and exceeded 50 C in approximately 100 !s.



"
#
$

Table 4-4. Weibull and Weibullian-log logistic (WeLL) inactivation parameters (n = scale parameter, a = shape
parameter, k = rate, T
c
= onset temperature level of inactivation) describing Escherichia coli O157:H7 inactivation
in milk by pulsed electric fields (PEF) processing.
Medium Temperature Time
PEF
Intensity

Weibull
parameters
WeLL
Parameters
(C) (h) (kV/mm, Hz) !
#
(!s
-1
)
$
%&
(C)

LACB 10 100
1.8, 20
7.4
"
106.4
#
3.6
$
47.1
%


LACB 25 25 3.9
"
77.4
#
7.4
$
40.1
%


LACB 40 25 5.5
"
94.6
#
8.3
$
39.8
%


TSBL 7 150
1.8, 20
2.4
&'
109.2
(
9.3
)
47.3
*


TSBL pH 5.0 (LA) 35 150 3.0
&
188.5
+
6.3
)
57.1
*


TSBL 7.5% NaCl 35 150 2.4
&'
172.1
(+
8.1
)
54.6
*


TSBL 45 25 1.2
'
257.0
,
10.2
)
59.2
*


LB

35 20
2.4, 20
1.4
!
26.0
-
7.3
.
28.6
/


LB 5 50 3.1
!
44.6
-
2.6
.
30.3
/


LB 5 250 4.7
!
59.8
-
3.4
.
31.9
/


Water 25 100 4.3
!
50.7
-
1.6
.
31.5
/


",#,$,%,&, ', (, +,,,),*,!,-,., /
Superscripted symbols indicate means within inactivation parameters that are statistically different at P < 0.05 using the Tukey procedure.

Water activity (aw) =

0.920.

Non-shocked control. LACB= lactose broth, TSBL = tryptic soy broth supplemented with 0.5 % lactose, LA = lactic acid, LB = Luria-Bertani broth, Miller.


123



(Continued)
0 23 30 73 100 123 130
25
35
45
55
65
75
-5.0
-4.0
-3.0
-2.0
-1.0
0.0
1.0
0 25 50 75 100 125 150
Energy (kJ/l)
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
'
C
)
M
i
c
r
o
b
i
a
l

r
e
d
u
c
t
i
o
n

(
L
o
g

S
(
t
)
)
time (!s)
7 'C
25 'C
40 'C
7 'C
25 'C
40 'C
Joule Heating
Joule Heating
7 "C
25 "C
40 "C
Joule heating
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
"
C
)
18 36 56 74 92 110 0
A
25
35
45
55
65
75
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
0 50 100 150 200 250
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
'
C
)
M
i
c
r
o
b
i
a
l

r
e
d
u
c
t
i
o
n


(
L
o
g

S
(
t
)
)
time (!s)
7 'C
pH 5.0
7.5% Salt
45 'C
7 'C
pH 5.0
40 'C
7.5% Salt
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
"
C
)
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
"
C
)
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
"
C
)
Joule heating
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
"
C
)
Energy (kJ/l)
36 74 110 146 184 0
7 "C
45 "C
B

126


Figure 4-3. Inactivation trends of Escherichia coli O157:H7 by pulsed electric fields
(PEF) processing after growth at challenging conditions and PEF treatment at 1.8
kV/mm and 20 Hz (A, B) or following environmental stress and PEF treatment at 2.4
kV/mm and 20 Hz (C). S = survival population, LACB = lactose broth, TSBL = tryptic soy
broth with added 0.5% lactose, NaCl = sodium chloride, aw = water activity. Trends
were calculated using the Weibull model, and specific energy based on capacitance.

0 20 40 60 80 100
25
35
45
55
65
75
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
0 20 40 60 80 100
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
'
C
)
M
i
c
r
o
b
i
a
l

r
e
d
u
c
t
i
o
n


(
L
o
g

S
(
t
)
)
time (!s)
Control
Cold Shocked (50 h)
Cold Shocked (250 h)
Starved
Control
CS 50
CS 250
Starved
Joule Heating
JH
Joule heating
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
"
C
)
26 52
78 104 130 0
Energy (kJ/l)
C

127

Several studies have shown that the resistance of bacterial cells to stress is
greater when they are in the stationary phase of growth. For example, Lou and Yousef
(1996) showed that the heat resistance of Listeria monocytogenes (measured as D
56C

value) increased eight-fold from early logarithmic to early stationary phase. These
observations also apply to PEF, Wouters and others (2001) demonstrated that L.
plantarum cells exhibited higher sensitivity to PEF when they were at exponential phase
rather than the stationary phase of growth. They attributed the effect to the elongation of
the bacteria cells in preparation for division compared to stationary phase bacterial cells
that have been adapted to survive stress conditions.
Growth temperature prior to hydrostatic high pressure (HHP) treatment was
reported to affect the resistance of L. monocytogenes to inactivation (Bull and others
2005). Similarly, exposure of L. monocytogenes to low pH increased its resistance to
subsequent heat treatment (Lou and Yousef 1996). Ryu and Beuchat (1998) studied the
effect of acid adaptation, and shock of E. coli O157:H7 in TSB (with 1% added glucose),
and observed a cross-protective effect when the organism was heat treated in apple
cider, and orange juice. They reported that the acid adapted bacteria were almost twice
as resistant as the acid shocked E. coli or the controls. Rowe and Kirk (1999) noticed
higher heat resistance (D
56C
) after exposing E. coli O157:H7 for 1 h to acidified TSB
(with glucose). Leenanon and Drake (2001) observed that acid adapted E. coli O157:H7
were more heat resistant (D
56C
) than those subjected to heat shock exposure. With
reference to PEF resistance, Garca and others (2005) analyzed the impact of acid
shock on eight microorganisms in citrate-phosphate buffer pH 4.0 (2 h) and found an
increase in resistance of the Gram negative organisms to PEF.

128

Starvation and cold shock have been also evaluated quantitatively for their effect
on resistance. Lou and Yousef (1996) observed that the thermo-tolerance (D
56C
) of L.
monocytogenes increased after starving the cells for up to 156 h. A similar trend of
increased thermo-tolerance (D
56C
) was observed by Leenanon and Drake (2001) after
starving E. coli O157:H7 at 37 C for 48 h with rpoS negative mutan ts exhibiting a lower
resistance. Moreover, Zhang and Griffiths (2003) suggested increased D
52C
values of
E. coli O157:H7 as a result of expression of stress response genes at various
temperatures. Leenanon and Drake (2001) reported that cold shock (at 5 C for 1 week)
led to a decrease of the thermo-tolerance (D
56C
) of E. coli cells except for the rpoS
negative mutant.
When comparing all of the stresses applied in the present study it could have
been expected that starvation will produce more resistant cells, as found by Lou and
Yousef (1996), and by Leenanon and Drake (2001). Direct comparison of the different
environmental stresses indicated that starvation induced stress resulted in similar PEF
resistance of E. coli O157:H7 than exposure to cold stress. However, the ability to
survive PEF was lower for bacteria exposed to osmotic and acid stress compared to
cells grown at higher growth temperatures were more resistant to PEF. The variance in
the findings obtained in this study could be explained by the stress specificity, and the
need of bacteria to maintain membrane fluidity for growth under challenging
environmental conditions as well as to adapt to changes in their intracellular
composition (Lado and others 2007, Chung and others 2001). Because the similarity in
the mechanisms of action and resistance, the protective effect observed in E. coli cells
grown at high temperatures on resistance to subsequent PEF treatment may be related

129

to membrane fluidity. Non-linear inactivation trends may result from microbial resistance
highlighted by lag periods (Juneja and others 1998), and by tailing (Hayman and
others 2007). Tailing as a consequence of PEF processing was reported by Alvarez
and others (2003) for the inactivation of Salmonella enterica, and Rodrguez-Calleja and
others (2006) with Staphylococcus aureus, and these results can be attributed to the
temperature control (below 35 C) both research gro ups applied during their treatments.
Predictive microbiology is evolving by incorporating the effect of the physiological
characteristics on the inactivation kinetics under static and dynamic conditions including
the modified Dabes kinetics (Vladramidis and others 2007), and the Weibullian-log
logistic (Peleg and Penchina 2000, Corradini and Peleg 2009). Thus, it is important to
point out that most of these variations in the progression of the kinetics occur at
temperatures where metabolic reactions occur, and this may in turn, depend on both the
microorganism and the food system investigated. Probabilistic modeling of growth/no
growth interfaces represents an alternative for the analysis of environmental growth
limitations (Palou and Malo 2005). The analysis of growth parameters have shown a
dependence on environmental factors, leading to the development of Arrhenius-type
kinetics, and secondary models like those applied in this study, which have the potential
to be applied in the design of processes using the hurdle technology approach
(McMeekin and others 2000).


130

4.4.Conclusions
The analysis of E. coli O157:H7 growth dynamics in two growth mediums
resulted in an enhanced ability to growth at challenging conditions when the nutrient
density was higher. In addition, the growth of E. coli at a lower pH (4.8) in a weaker acid
(LA), and a minimum water activity of 0.915 were predicted linear using secondary
models. The response ratios of the E. coli O157:H7 general stress reporters were
successfully modeled using mechanistic and probabilistic models, providing
advancement to predictive risk assessment. Also, the variation in resistance of cross
protected E. coli cells was reflected as mean time values from the Weibull model, and
onset temperatures for inactivation, at various PEF treatment conditions were
estimated, providing an additional insight to the mathematical analysis of PEF
inactivation of microbial cells.

131

5. General conclusion
As reviewed in the introductory section, non-thermal dairy processes continue to
be developed with several purposes including the inactivation or removal of
microorganisms to improve the safety of dairy products and their stability during
storage. Cross-flow micro-filtration is becoming well established in the dairy industry
with the objective of removing spores that cause cheese late blowing and to produce
extended shelf-life (ESL) milk with enhanced quality attributes.
Because the regulations related to pasteurization are based on temperature and
time combinations, the emergence of new processes is leading to the evaluation of
alternatives to thermal processing because of their potential benefits on enhanced
nutritional benefits, sensory attributes and shelf stability among others. For that reason
the analysis of FSOs is being considered as the criteria to determine the safety of
products resulting from a line of processes.
Sustainable processing is an emerging trend driven by the public awareness of
the environmental impact of human activities, and led by the dairy industry by analyzing
the factors that affect the manufacture of its products. This movement continues to be
incorporated in the development and commercialization of non-thermal processes.
Within the electro-magnetic processes PEF, which consists on pulsing an electric
field to a food flowing through a treatment chamber, has demonstrated that can be
applied for the inactivation of microorganisms in milk without damaging its
macronutrients and micronutrients and quality aspects such as color, moisture.

132

Parallel to the development of new processes, their combination in sequence or
as a unit has also been implemented commercially, in what has been named hurdle
technology. The combination of non-thermal and thermal processes to achieve higher
safety and stability levels has also become a movement within the new processes. In
that regard, the flexibility on the application of PEF facilitates its potential to be
combined with other technologies.
One of the drawbacks of the application of hurdle technology with the objective of
minimal processing is the potential development of microbial stress responses that
increase their resistance to decreased intensity levels of treatment, and or may cause
cross-protection to heterologous stresses. Increasing research in the subject has
developed several techniques that facilitate the monitoring of the physiological status of
microbial cells when exposed to extreme environments. Combining these novel
techniques with a more accurate quantitative analysis of the inactivation of the microbial
population can result in a more accurate risk analysis of new processes.
Initial experiments (chapter 2) highlighted the various factors that affect the
effectiveness of PEF for the inactivation of native microorganisms in milk. Statistical
differences (P < 0.05) were observed on the reduction of mesophilic populations at fat
contents ranging between 1.1 and 3.1 % at an intensity of 4.8 kV/mm and 918 s, with
higher reductions at the lower fat content. While there was no clear trend in the
reduction of the coliform and psychrotroph populations between these fat levels the
results obtained at the highest PEF intensity level were comparable to the ones
obtained with HTST.

133

By increasing the PEF inlet temperature from 5.0-6.3 C to 34.0-34.3 C the PEF
treatment time required to inactivate 3.0 or more Log CFU/ml of the mesophilic
population and more than 3.8 log CFU/ml was decreased from 1530 s to 510 s at 4.0
kV/mm and from 459 s to 230 s at 5.6 kV/mm. And by applying CFMF prior to PEF
the reduction was increased to more than 4.7 log CFU/ml in mesophilics, coliforms and
psychrotrophs, which was similar to the CFMF/HTST combination. In addition,
differences in cream (12%) homogenization were noticeable in the reduction of the
coliform population when applying 4.0 kV/mm for 1530 s suggesting better PEF
inactivation effects in homogenized cream. This study concluded establishing the
relation between conductivity and fat or solids content, which resulted in a decrease in
conductivity of 0.07 S/m per 10% of fat content in non-homogenized products, and an
increase in conductivity of 0.05 S/m per 1 % of solids in the non-fat products with
correlations of 0.97 and 0.92 respectively.
The first study was complemented with an investigation of the combination of
PEF and CFMF in the alternate sequences. Higher microbial reductions were achieved
by applying PEF prior CFMF (PEF/CFMF) with up to 7.1 log CFU/ml reductions at 4.2
kV/mm and 612 s, which was higher compared to 4.8 log CFU/ml achieved in the
traditional sequence (CFMF/PEF), and thermal pasteurization (75 C x 24 s) where 4.6
log CFU/ml were achieved. After 7 days of the shelf-life study the microbial counts of
PEF/MF treated milk and TP were similar for some of the populations analyzed (total
aerobic mesophiles, total moulds and yeasts, total lactic acid bacteria, total
staphylococci), the total enteric bacteria counts and total psychrotrophs, were higher in
PEF/CFMF, while the total thermoduric psychrotrophs, total thermoduric mesophiles,

134

and total thermoduric thermophiles were higher in thermally pasteurized milk, leading to
a conclusion that the kind of microorganisms inactivated by both technologies may differ
resulting in different profiles of microorganisms that recover from inactivation.
A different approach was taken in the third study where the growth of Escherichia
coli O157:H7 was monitored by means of absorbance in two mediums (LACB and
TSBL) resulting in an enhanced capability to growth at extreme temperature conditions
in a medium with higher nutrient density (TSBL). Also, TSBL was modified to growth E.
coli O157:H7 in acid and high salt concentrations. The Cardinal and Ratkowsky models
were used to describe the microbial growth from optimum to extreme environments.
Additionally microbial constructs allowed monitoring the expression of stress proteins by
means of fluorescence. The Gompertz, Logistic and Weibull models have similar
goodness-of-fit in explaining stress response ratios. In general, the kinetics of
inactivation by PEF explained by the weibull distribution showed downwards concavity
as the temperature increased with treatment time. When PEF treated at the peak of
their growth no differences in the weibull constants were found among cells grown in
LACB at three temperatures (10, 25 or 40 C), while when grown in TSBL at 45 C the
cells more than two times as resistant compared to the cells grown in acid (lactic acid
pH 5.0), high salt concentrations (7.5%) or at cold temperatures (7 C). No differences
were found in cells stressed by starvation for 100 hours (25 C) or cold shocked at 5 C
for 50 or 250 hours. It was concluded that the cross-protective effect of heterologous
stresses might be counteracted by the combined effect of electric fields and joule
heating. The minimum temperatures for inactivation to occur predicted by the WeLL
model varied depending on the setup applied, with no differences within the treatments.

133

Also, E. coli O157:H7 cells grown at higher temperatures may require an increase in
treatment time to achieve similar reductions.
In general, this work addressed the various factors involved in the
implementation of PEF as a microbial inactivation technique in milk, its combination with
microfiltration, and explained the potential risks that need to be accounted when a
stress adapted microorganism (E. coli O157:H7) may represent when exposed to PEF
using advanced models.
5.1. Applications and future research
By studying the survival of natural microflora passing through various processing
steps of milk production critical factors were highlighted, which enable possible
implementation of CFMF in conjunction with PEF in a milk production line as a possible
alternative to conventional pasteurization methods. To implement of PEF in combination
with other processes as CFMF and heat at the plant level more investigation in the
temperature effect is needed; higher CFMF temperatures (around 50 C) have been
shown to increase the level of microbial reduction which implemented in would allow
PEF processing at higher flow rates. By improving the processing conditions there is a
potential to increase the milk shelf life, creating a process to produce milk with a lower
level of spores and thermodurics than traditionally pasteurized milk. Research at the
protein and microbial level when reversing the sequence of CFMF and PEF processing
would elucidate the molecular mechanisms that cause an enhanced microbial reduction.
In addition, the effect of homogenization on the microbial membrane integrity when

136

treating milk products of high fat level can reveal a different pattern of microbial
inactivation.
Research on the effects of environmental stress response of a model
microorganism as E. coli O157:H7 the observations can be extrapolated to similar
bacteria. As the study of modified liquid media revealed a protective effect of the
nutrients additional research in the effect of sugar content, and type (glucose, sucrose
or lactose), may expose different patterns of microbial growth at extreme conditions (i.e.
temperature and food ingredients like acids and salts) that can be further modeled. The
construction of fluorescent stress reporters (biosensors) of other types of
microorganisms (i.e. gram positives) may also reveal different trends. Also, further
studies in the cross-protective effect of environmental hardening prior PEF processing
at low temperatures may result in variation on microbial inactivation due to variation on
the protective mechanisms that could be utilized for microbial selection. From a safe
processing perspective the study of the inactivation of cross-protected bacteria by PEF
processing at higher temperatures would help to establish the optimum conditions for
use as a pasteurization process. Applying quantitative methods to optimize the PEF
processing conditions where a desired microbial inactivation level is achieved at
optimum temperature and flow conditions can strengthen this understanding.

137

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"
#
$

7. Annex
A1. Relative scale of energy sources at the electromagnetic spectrum.

Adapted from LASP 2010, SURA 2005, and McBee 1996.
m mm
10
9
10
6
10
3
1 10
-3
10
-6
10
-9
10
-12
10
-15
Wavelength
(m)
100 1 0.1
Wavelength
(%&)
700 400
Wavelength
('&)
Violet Indigo Blue Green Yellow Orange Red
UV
Visible
Light
Near
Infrared
Intermediate
Infrared
Far
Infrared
Visible
Light
Thermal
Radiation
Electro-
magnetic
spectrum
Hertzian
Waves
Radio
Waves
Electric
Power
X
Rays
Gamma
Rays
10
-18
Cosmic
Rays
600
10
Frequency
(()*+ ,
-"
)
1 10
3
10
6
10
9
10
12
10
15
10
18
10
21
10
24
500
Micro-
wave
%m km nm
Thermal
Radiation
10
-15
10
-12
10
-9
10
-6
10
-3
1 10
3
10
6
10
9
10
12
Energy
(./)