Food Control 21 (2010) 125–131 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont Radio frequency heating of comminuted meats – Considerations in relation to microbial challenge studies B. Byrne a,*, J.G. Lyng b, G. Dunne a, D.J. Bolton a a b Ashtown Food Research Centre, Teagasc, Ashtown, Dublin 15, Ireland School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, UCD Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 19 June 2008 Received in revised form 23 February 2009 Accepted 2 March 2009 Keywords: Radio frequency cooking Bacillus cereus Clostridium perfringens Dielectric and thermal properties a b s t r a c t Bacillus cereus and Clostridium perfringens vegetative cell and spore cocktails in maximum recovery diluent (MRD) were inoculated into pork luncheon meat to challenge a previously developed radio frequency (RF) cooking protocol. After RF cooking and cooling microbial enumeration results showed a reduction in B. cereus vegetative cell and spores of 5.4 and 1.8 log10 cfu g1, respectively while the corresponding reduction for C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores were 6.8 and 4.1 log10 cfu g1, respectively. However, post cooking temperatures within the product were lower than anticipated. Subsequent analysis of product thermal and dielectric properties indicated that MRD addition and compositional variations within meat ingredients altered thermal and dielectric properties which in turn contributed to reduced and less uniform temperatures. The study shows that for RF microbial challenge studies, adjustment of product formulation prior to MRD addition is critical to ensure a similar composition to the normal product and a true picture of microbial inactivation. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Traditionally, meat products are cooked by immersion in hot water or in a steam oven. With both of these methods, heat is transferred by conduction from the outer surface of the product to its interior which in turn can lead to overheating of the surface while waiting for the interior to reach an appropriate temperature. In contrast, RF cooks products volumetrically with the product forming a dielectric between two electrodes acting as capacitor plates. These electrodes are alternatively charged from positive to negative several million times in a second (e.g. 27 MHz) and as a result the polar molecules in the product are constantly realigned causing internal friction to occur and leading to the production of heat. RF heating achieves quicker cooking times than conventional cooking and all parts of the product heat at the same rate (Brunton et al., 2005; Laycock, Piyasena, & Mittal, 2003; Zhang, Lyng, & Brunton, 2004b; Zhang, Lyng, Brunton, Morgan, & Mc Kenna, 2004a). Best practice for safe production of heat chill processed foods requires the development and implementation of validated and verified heating and chilling processes. This will ensure that all products receive adequate heating and chilling to ensure production of a safe food. RF heating has been reported to inactivate Escherichia coli O157:H7 (Awuah, Ramaswamy, Economides, & * Corresponding author. Tel.: +353 1 8059985; fax: +353 1 8059550. E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Byrne). 0956-7135/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2009.03.003 Mallikarjunan, 2005; Guo, Piyasena, Mittal, Si, & Gong, 2006), Salmonella (Nelson, Lu, Beuchat, & Harrison, 2002), Listeria, generic E. coli in milk (Awuah et al., 2005) and increase the shelf life of food (Orsat, Bai, Raghavan, & Smith, 2004). From a microbial inactivation perspective, it has also been proposed that RF heating differs from conventional heating as in addition to heat inactivation of microorganisms, non thermal inactivation or ‘‘cold pasteurisation” has been claimed though differing reports of this theory can be found in the literature. Non-thermal inactivation has been attributed to selective heating, electroporation, cell membrane rupture, and magnetic field coupling (Geveke & Brunkhorst, 2008; Geveke & Sun, 2005). This paper does not specifically attempt to determine whether cold pasteurisation occurs during RF heating as such a study would involved the application of RF under non-thermal conditions. However, it does challenge the ability of RF heating to inactivate B. cereus and C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores in inoculated meat emulsion samples. In a previous study, Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004) validated RF heat processes for emulsion meat products using published microbial inactivation kinetic data (i.e. D and z values) for Listeria monocytogenes. A similar meat emulsion recipe was used in the present study but as this kinetic information is composition dependent, the D and z values for B. cereus and C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores were determined for the actual meat batter formulation used in the present study (Byrne, Dunne, & Bolton, 2006). The paper also explores how the RF temperature profile of a meat batter can be influenced by changes in composition, density and also thermal and dielectric 126 B. Byrne et al. / Food Control 21 (2010) 125–131 properties as an understanding of the influence of these factors on heating is important to individuals charged with responsibility for validating RF heating protocols. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Bacterial cultures Three B. cereus cultures were used in this study. Two B. cereus strains, DSM 4313 (isolated from a food poisoning incident) and DSM 626 (extensively used in sporulation and germination studies) were obtained from DSMZ (Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen, Braunschweig, Germany). The third strain, NCTC 07464 (reference culture) was obtained from the Health Laboratory Services (HLS, London, UK). The three C. perfringens cultures used in this study included DSM 11784 (food poisoning incident isolate), NCTC 10614 (food poisoning incident isolate) and NCTC 08237 (reference culture). All cultures were stored on cryo-protective beads (Technical Service Consultants Ltd., Lancaster, UK) at – 20 °C. 2.2. Sample preparation and inoculation Cocktails were used to represent the probability of more than one strain of B. cereus or C. perfringens growing in the meat. One protective bead of each B. cereus and C. perfringens strain was inoculated into 30 ml of brain heart infusion broth (BHI, Oxoid, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England) and 30 ml of fluid thioglycolate (FTG, Oxoid, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England), respectively. The former was incubated aerobically at 30 °C for 24 h. The latter was anaerobically incubated in a anaerobic incubator (Don Whitley Scientific Limited, 14 Otley Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, UK) at 37 °C for 24 h (Labbe, Downes, & Ito, 2001). Each inoculum was centrifuged using an Eppendorf Centrifuge 5403 (Davidson & Hardy Ltd., Belfast, N Ireland) at 3000g for 10 min at 4 °C. The recovered pellets were then washed three times with, and resuspended in 10 ml maximum recovery diluent (MRD, Oxoid, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK) (1 g l1 peptone + 8.5 g l1 sodium chloride). The acridine orange direct count technique (Walls & Sheridan, 1989) was used to establish the concentration of each of the vegetative cell suspensions. Phase contrast microscopy (PCM) (Olympus BX61, Japan) was carried out on each individual strain to confirm that each strain had not sporulated (González, López, Martínez, Bernardo, & González, 1999; Sarker, Shivers, Sparks, Juneja, & Mc Clane, 2000). The concentration of each strain was adjusted by diluting with MRD, to obtain a uniform cell concentration of 9.0 log10 cfu ml1 for each vegetative cell strain. The three strains of B. cereus were then mixed together to produce a B. cereus vegetative cell cocktail and the three C. perfringens stains were mixed to prepare the C. perfringens vegetative cell cocktail. The cocktail concentrations were confirmed using a plating technique as follows. B. cereus and C. perfringens were plated onto the non selective media tryptic soya agar (TSA, Oxoid) and aerobically incubated at 30 °C for 48 h (Mazas, González, López, González, & Sarmiento, 1995) and anaerobically incubated at 37 °C for 48 h (de Jong et al., 2003), respectively. B. cereus spores were obtained using the technique of Leguerinel and Mafart (2001). C. perfringens spores were obtained using the method of Duncan and Strong (1968). Briefly, starter vegetative cultures (30 ml) of each of B. cereus and C. perfringens isolates were aerobically incubated at 30 °C in brain heart infusion broth (BHI, Oxoid) (Coroller, Leguérinel, & Mafart, 2001), and anaerobically incubated overnight at 37 °C in fluid thioglycolate (FTG, Oxoid) medium (Sarker et al., 2000), respectively. The B. cereus inoculum was used to inoculate the surface of nutrient agar (NA, Oxoid) containing manganese sulphate (MnSO4; 40 mg l1, Sigma) and cal- cium chloride (CaCl2; 100 mg l1, Sigma). These plates were incubated at 30 °C for 5 d. The spores were harvested by pouring 10 ml of sterile distilled water onto each plate and scraping the surface of the agar with a sterile hockey stick. The resultant spore suspension was removed aseptically using a sterile syringe and centrifuged at 3000g for 10 min at 4 °C. The recovered pellets were then washed 3 times with MRD and suspended in a 10 ml of a 50% (v v1) ethanol (Sigma) solution and stored at 4 °C for 12 h in order to reduce the number of vegetative non-sporulated bacteria. After refrigeration, the spore suspensions were washed a further three times with MRD, the final suspension was stored in eppendorf microtubes at 4 °C. C. perfringens spore solutions were prepared by inoculating 0.2 ml of a starter FTG culture into 10 ml of Duncan–Strong (D–S, Sigma) sporulation broth, incubated anaerobically at 37 °C for 24 h. The inocula were stored at 4 °C in D–S broth (de Jong et al., 2003; Duncan & Strong, 1968) and washed again three times by centrifugation. The spore suspensions were checked at each stage using PCM (González et al., 1999; Sarker et al., 2000). The concentration of each B. cereus strain was established by serial diluting each spore suspension and plating onto TSA which was incubated aerobically at 30 °C for 24 h. The concentration of each C. perfringens strain was established by serial diluting each spore suspension and plating onto reinforced clostridrial agar (RCA, Oxoid) and incubating anaerobically at 37 °C for 24 h. The spore concentration of each culture was adjusted with MRD to contain 9.0 log10 cfu ml1. The three strains of B. cereus were mixed together to produce a B. cereus spore cocktail and the three C. perfringens stains were mixed to prepare a C. perfringens spore cocktail. Pork luncheon roll was prepared according to the protocol of Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004). Pork meat (Local supplier), seasoning (Blakes Ingredients, Dublin, Ireland) and cure solution (water (240 g), salt (50 g), NaNO2 (0.2 g) and NaNO3 (0.2 g)) were used in the preparation of the pork luncheon roll. The meat was divided into 1.1 kg samples, which were placed into polyethylene bags, vacuum-sealed and frozen at 20 °C (Zhang, Lyng, & Brunton, 2004). Prior to inoculation, these 1.1 kg samples of luncheon meat were thawed overnight in a coldroom (4 °C) before being inoculated with a 10% inoculum of the B. cereus or C. perfringens cocktails, and blended (Kenwood food processor FP110, Hampshire, UK) for 5 min to ensure that an even distribution of the cells or spores in the meat samples. After inoculation, 1 kg of each meat sample was vacuum packed, and inserted in a casing (to ensure no leakage of meat samples during cooking), a third meat sample was prepared by substituting the inoculum with MRD as a control. 2.3. Radio frequency cooking of pork luncheon roll Samples were RF cooked (500 W) under circulating water (80 °C) for 33 min using the RF oven and polyethylene cell described by Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004). After 33 min the RF power was turned off and the samples were held in the circulating water at 80 °C for a further 2 min. This cooking protocol was repeated for all samples. Following RF cooking all samples (excluding those destined for post cooking temperature distribution measurement) were immediately placed in ice water for 40 min, until the sample temperature was at 4 °C. To determine post cooking temperature distribution, three samples with 10% added MRD (no bacterial cells or spores) were cooked as per inoculated (MRD plus bacterial cells or spores) samples following which they were immediately placed in a thermocouple jig (described by Zhang et al. 2004b) to determine post cooking temperature distribution. A Grant Squirrel Meter/logger 1600 series (Grant Cambridge, UK) was used to measure and record the temperature of the samples (Zhang et al. 2004b). From 127 B. Byrne et al. / Food Control 21 (2010) 125–131 the resultant data an average, maximum and minimum post cooking temperature for the RF pork luncheon roll was calculated. (i) Temperature profile during RF cooking and holding: The start temperature of samples immediately pre-cooking was measured in triplicate samples using a hand held thermocouple probe and was 5.5 °C. As all samples were equilibrated in the same incubator for similar times it was assumed that this start temperature was common to all samples. As temperature validation is always carried out on the ‘‘cold spot” within a product (i.e. the area in the product deemed to have the lowest temperature), the lowest internal post cooking product temperature recorded by the thermocouple jig was used as the temperature at the end of the heat hold cycle. At the end of the heat hold period the thermocouple jig always showed temperatures of <80 °C in all areas of the sample. Therefore as the surrounding water was at a higher temperature (80 °C) and heat always transfers from a region of higher to lower temperature it was assumed that heat was still passing into the sample during the holding period and that a temperature rise of 1 °C occurred within the sample in this 2 min period. This 1 °C was deducted from the temperatures measured at the end of the heat hold period to get a predicted temperature at the end of RF heating. A linear temperature profile was then constructed from the 5.5 °C start temperature to this predicted temperature across the 30 min duration of the RF cook cycle. (ii) Temperature profile during cooling: An average cooling curve was calculated by recording time temperature profiles from the geometric centre of triplicate rolls while samples were cooled using the procedure described in Section 2.3. 2.4. Bacterial enumeration The cooked pork luncheon meat was aseptically divided into twenty sections, as per Fig. 1. From each section, 25 g of meat were removed, 225 ml of MRD were added and this mixture was stomached for 1 min at medium speed. The stomacher fluids were serially diluted and stored at 4 °C prior to plating. The vegetative cells were recovered by plating 0.1 ml of stomacher fluids directly onto Bacillus cereus agar (BCA, Oxoid) for B. cereus and plating on to tryptose–sulfite–cycloserine (TSC, Oxoid) (with TSC overlay) for C. perfringens. To recover vegetative cells that were injured but not destroyed, 0.1 ml of the resulting stomacher fluids was spread plated onto TSA, incubated for 2 h at 25 °C and then over-poured with the relevant selective media (BCA for B. cereus and TSC for C. perfringens) (Juneja, Snyder, & Marmer, 1997). The plates were incubated aerobically at 30 °C for 24 h for B. cereus and incubated anaerobically at 37 °C for 24 h for C. perfringens. Surviving spores were enumerated using a similar method but with the following modifications. For B. cereus samples, the dilutions were plated onto NA and BCA and incubated at 30 °C for 48 h. C. perfringens samples were plated onto RCA and TSC (with TSC overlay) and incubated anaerobically at 37 °C for 48 h prior to counting colonies (Sarker et al., 2000). The colony forming units (cfu’s) were recorded and converted into log10 cfu g1. The RF cooking protocol was repeated 3 times and the mean log10 cfu g1 were calculated. 2.5. Prediction of temperature profiles and calculation of pasteurisation units Fibre optic probes allow sample temperature measurements during RF cooking but most commercially available systems have 1–4 probes which is insufficient for a comprehensive measure of sample temperature distribution in a large 1 kg sample such as that found in the present study. However, it is accepted that RF heating is a volumetric form of heating and this has been illustrated by fibre optic temperature profiles for a range of meats cooked using the current setup by Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004), Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2006) and Brunton et al. (2005). These profiles show linear temperature increases during RF cooking followed by a plateau in the 2 min holding period while samples were held in 80 °C circulating water. Model temperature profiles were constructed by dividing the temperature profile into two regions (i) RF cooking followed by holding in circulating water at 80 °C (ii) Cooling by immersion in iced water. Temperature profiles for these regions were estimated as follows. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Sections From the predicted time temperature profile constructed in (i), pasteurisation units (PU) for B. cereus (vegetative and spores) and C. perfringens (vegetative and spores) were calculated using z value and reference temperature (h) data presented in Table 1 and the following equation Z tp Th z dt 10 ¼ Pasteurisation units ðPUÞ ð1Þ 0 where, T is the predicted temperature (°C) at the coldest point in the product at any time during the heat process, dt is the duration of time at a particular temperature (min) and tp is the time at the end of the heating process (min). 2.6. Proximate analysis Moisture (M) and fat (F) contents of meat batter was determined by an automated, integrated microwave moisture and methylene chloride fat extraction method (Bostian, Fish, Webb, & Arey, 1985). This was carried out using a CEMÒ microwave moisture/solids analyser system (Model No. AVC-80, CEM Corporation, 3100 Smith Farm Road, Matthews, NC 28105, USA) and a CEMÒ (Model No. FES-80) automatic fat extraction system. Protein (P) analysis was carried out using a LecoÒ (Model No. FP-428 LecoÒ Corporation, 3000 Lakeview Ave., St. Joseph, MI 49086 - 2396, Table 1 D and z valuesa for B. cereus and C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores in the pork luncheon roll used in the calculation of pasteurisation units in the current study. Fig. 1. Diagram illustrating the division of the luncheon roll for microbial analysis following RF cooking. Microorganism h (°C) Dhb value (min) z Value (°C) B. B. C. C. 60 95 60 95 1 2 8.5 9.7 6.6 8.6 7.7 8.3 cereus cells cereus spores perfringens cells perfringens spores a b Adapted from Byrne et al. (2006). Dh: D value at a reference temperature h. 128 B. Byrne et al. / Food Control 21 (2010) 125–131 USA) Nitrogen Protein Analyser using the method of Sweeney and Rexroad (1987). Ash (A) was determined by incinerating samples in a muffle furnace, using the method of Kolar (1992) while carbohydrate (C) content was calculated by difference. Composition of raw luncheon roll meat batter was measured before and after MRD addition. ð1aÞ and fat meat was used and also the fact that rolls were vacuum packaged during cooking in the present study. These differences would appear to be minor, though when post cooking temperatures were compared, the samples cooked by Zhang et al. (2004b) reached higher average, minimum and maximum temperatures than the samples in the present study (i.e. average: 80.6 °C vs. 72.2 °C; minimum: 77.4 °C vs. 66.9 °C; maximum: 83.3 °C vs. 78.6 °C respectively). In addition, using data supplied by Zhang et al. (personal communication) a comparison was made between the average of the 6 thermocouples reading 1.5 cm under the product surface (‘‘outer” thermocouples) vs. the 6 thermocouples reading 3 cm under the product surface (‘‘mid” thermocouples) vs. the 3 thermocouples reading 4.5 cm under the product surface (‘‘centre” thermocouples) (Table 2). These results suggest the samples in the present study showed much greater heating towards the outer regions of the samples and a much colder interior, while the samples of Zhang et al. (2004b) were much more uniform when outer, mid and core temperatures were compared. This study observed DT (i.e. maximum–minimum temperatures) values of 11.7 °C which were larger than the DT values of 5.9 °C reported by Zhang, indicating less uniformity in the current investigation. Temperature differentials and ‘‘cold spots” are a major concern in the validation of heat process. The following section attempts to explain why these quite different temperature results were found when two relatively similar studies were compared. ð1bÞ 3.2. Factors influencing RF heating in the present study 2.7. Dielectric property measurement Dielectric properties were measured on uncooked batters with and without MRD addition and before and after vacuum packaging. Samples were equilibrated in an air-conditioned laboratory at 23 °C (±1 °C) and measurements at 27.12 MHz were subsequently carried out using the methods described by Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton. (2004). 2.8. Thermal property and density prediction The thermal properties heat capacity (c) (J kg1 C1) and thermal conductivity (k) (W m1 C1) and also density (q) (kg m3) were predicted from proximate composition data using Equations below given in (Buffler, 1993). c ¼ ð4190 MÞ þ ð1780 PÞ þ ð1980 FÞ þ ð1420 CÞ þ ð950 AÞ k ¼ ð0:6 MÞ þ ð0:2 PÞ þ ð0:18 FÞ þ ð0:2 CÞ þ ð0:14 AÞ q ¼ ð1000 MÞ þ ð1290 PÞ þ ð920 FÞ þ ð1930 CÞ þ ð1740 AÞ ð1cÞ where M is the moisture (% wet weight), P is the protein (% wet weight), F is the fat (% wet weight), C is the carbohydrate (% wet weight), and A is the ash (% wet weight).Thermal diffusivity (a) (expressed as m2 s1 107) values were calculated using the predicted values for cp, q and k and Eq. (2) provided by (Dickerson, 1965). a¼ k qc ð2Þ 2.9. Statistical analysis Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the effect of MRD addition, and vacuum packaging on the composition and thermophysical properties measured using the SAS software package (Version 8.2, Statistical Analysis Systems, Cary, NC, USA). 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Post-cooking temperature profiles The equipment, basic luncheon roll recipe and cooking procedure used in the present study were identical to those used by Zhang et al. (2004b), though there were some differences between the two studies including the addition of 10% MRD to the batter in the present study and also the fact that a different batch of lean The RF oven and cooking conditions used in this study were identical to those used in the study of Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004). The star diagram (Fig. 2) highlights the significant differences between the composition, q, thermal and dielectric properties of the batter used in these studies. This diagram presents the results for each proximate, thermal and dielectric attribute on separate radii. Different scales are used on each radius with the centre of the circle representing 0 and the value adjacent to the circumference indicating the maximum on the scale for that particular attribute. When the composition of samples in the present study was compared to those of Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004), the batter used in the present study had higher moisture (P < 0.001) and ash (P < 0.01) and lower protein (P < 0.001) and carbohydrate (P < 0.05) contents. There was no significant difference between the fat content of the batters in both studies. The higher moisture in the batter used in the present study is most certainly due to the addition of MRD while the higher average fat content may be due to differences in the composition of the raw meat used between the studies. The significantly greater ash levels measured in the batter prepared in the current study can most likely be attributed to the MRD. These differences in composition influence the thermal and dielectric properties of the material as well as its q. For example MRD used in the current study was found to have a dielectric loss factor (e0 0 ) of 890 (and a dielectric constant (e0 ) of 75.1). This e0 0 translates to the MRD having the equivalent e00 value of a 0.9% NaCl solution, based on a regression performed using data provided by Lyng, Zhang, and Brunton (2005). Differences in composition can also affect q and Fig. 2 shows significantly higher Table 2 A comparison of temperatures recorded by the outer, mid and centre thermocouples of samples in the current study vs. Zhang et al. (2004). Distance under product surface (n = number of thermocouples) Descriptor Present study (°C) Zhang et al.a (°C) 1.5 cm (n = 6) 3 cm (n = 6) 4.5 cm (n = 3) Outer Mid Centre 76.0 73.7 67.6 80.4 80.8 80.4 a Zhang et al. (personal communication). 129 B. Byrne et al. / Food Control 21 (2010) 125–131 e00 of comminuted meats at both RF and MW frequencies (Zhang, **d p(cm) % Fat NS 25 0.7 15 % Protein *** 15 * Tan δ 20 5 % Ash ** ** ε ’’ 1000 15 % Carbohydrate * ** ε’ 60 4000 c *** 0.6 k *** -71.5 *** α x 10 1500 ρ* Current study Zhang et al (2004 b) Fig. 2. A comparison of the composition, density dielectric and thermal properties of luncheon roll batter used in the current study vs. that used by Zhang et al. (2004). predicted q than the batter used by Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004) and the current study (P < 0.05). However, it is very important to note that this difference in predicted q is purely based on Eq. (1c). This equation uses proximate composition of each batter to calculate q and does not take into account q differences imposed by vacuum packaging. In the present study, the samples were vacuum packaged following batter preparation and were subsequently frozen, thawed and MRD was mixed in before further vacuum packaging pre-cooking. In contrast the batter of Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004) was not vacuum packaged between batter manufacture and cooking. Therefore it is possible that the q of the batter prepared in the present study was actually increased by vacuum packaging. Fig. 2 also shows higher calculated a in the batter used in the present study compared to that of Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004) (P < 0.001) which would suggest that the batter in the current study should heat faster. However, as q is used in the calculation of a (which in turn gives an indication of the speed of heating), an increase in q (due to vacuum packaging) could also reduce a. This in turn would be expected to reduce heating rate which would be more in line with actual observations in the present study. Overall these results on q and a prediction suggest a certain amount of caution should be used when interpreting the results from composition based thermal property prediction formulae. Another important contributing factor to the lower temperature rise in the batter prepared in the current study is the c value. This value is lower (P < 0.001) in the batter prepared by Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004), (Fig. 2) which meant that the batter prepared for the current study required greater amounts of energy input for a given temperature increase. The higher e0 in the batter in the current study (Fig. 2) means a greater proportion of the RF power approaching the surface of the product will be reflected away (i.e. higher Pr (i.e. Fig. 2)). This also may have had some influence on the temperature rise in the batter. However, once the RF energy enters the product the higher e0 in the batter used in the current study (Fig. 2) (most likely due to higher levels of ions introduced by the 10% added MRD and the major influence of ionic compounds on dielectric properties at 27.12 MHz (Lyng et al., 2005) means that a greater proportion of the power will be absorbed in the outer regions of the product, which contributed to a lower dp (Fig. 2). The removal of air by vacuum packaging has been shown to significantly increase the Lyng, & Brunton, 2007) as it is generally accepted that the presence of air lowers dielectric properties. Therefore in this study, vacuum packaging of the product may have also contributed to the increase in observed e00 increase compared to that of Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004). This increase in e00 effect has also manifested itself in Section 3.1 where a comparison between outer mid and core temperatures show greater temperature rises in the outer regions of the samples. This in turn could also partially account for the overall lower temperature rise in the batter in the current study as less power would be available to heat the inner regions of the product due to greater levels of absorption in the outside of the product. Overall, compared to the pork luncheon roll of Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004), some changes in the thermal and dielectric properties of the batter (and its temperature rise on RF heating) may have been induced by differences in raw meat composition and vacuum packaging. However, many of the observed modifications can be attributed to the addition of MRD. This suggests that a more appropriate approach when performing microbial challenge tests on RF (and indeed microwave and ohmically heated meats) is to adjust the formulation of the batter (e.g. by reducing water and salt addition) to such an extent that when MRD is added the products composition is in line with the composition of conventional samples to which no MRD has been added. Alternatively this effect could be avoided by utilising an inoculation system which allowed the introduction of challenge microorganisms while avoiding the use of a disruptive additive such as MRD as the validity of the model may be reduced by changing the (input) product to compensate for the impact of MRD. 3.3. Predicted temperature profiles and pasteurisation units Predicted temperature profiles for the current study are presented in Fig. 3 and are compared to temperature profiles for the luncheon roll batter of Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton, (2004). RF protocols show the lower maximum temperatures attained in the current study. In addition, cooling profiles also differ as samples in the current study were cooled in iced water while Zhang, Lyng, and Brunton (2004) cooled samples in circulating tap water for 40 min according to the method of Boccard et al. (1981) before transferring samples to refrigerated storage. Target pasteurisation units required to eliminate the inoculated levels of each microorganism type were calculated (Table 3). In this study, the approach taken towards calculating this target was to 80 Current Study Zhang et al (2004b) 70 60 o * Pr Temperature ( C) *** % Moisture 100 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Time (min) Fig. 3. A comparison of time temperature profiles from the current study (predicted) vs. Zhang et al. (2004). 130 B. Byrne et al. / Food Control 21 (2010) 125–131 Table 3 Pasteurisation units (PU) calculated for B. cereus and C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores from predicted time temperature profiles from cold spot of pork luncheon roll used in the current study. Microorganism B. B. C. C. a cereus (V ) cereus (Sa) perfringens (V) perfringens (S) a b c d e Innoculation level (IL) (log10 cfu g1) Dhb value (min) Target PU (min) for sterility 7.5 7.6 8.5 9.7 D60 D95 D60 D95 7.5 15.2 58.65 74.69 1 2 8.5 9.7 Actual PU (min)d Zhange PU (min) 6.426 0.001 6.591 0.0004 1593 0.041 758 0.034 V: Vegetative cells; S: Spores. Dh: D value at a reference temperature h. Actual PU (min) was calculated by multiplying the number of log inoculated by Dh to get the number of min at h required to sterilised the product. Calculated using Eq. (1). Zhang et al. (2004). multiply the number of log10 cycles of each organism type inoculated by the reference Dh value (min) to give a target time (min) at a reference temperature h required to render the product sterile with respect to the inoculated organism. Generally for a product to be sterile with respect to an organism the actual PU should at a very minimum be P target PU. up times during RF cooking of PLM in the current study compared to those in Byrne et al. (2006) may have thermally damaged the spores thereby giving an underestimate of the actual numbers present. However, a separate dedicated study would be required to determine the actual cause of these differences. 4. Conclusions 3.4. Challenge study Table 3 shows that the PU’s produced by the predicted heating protocol used in the current study (Fig. 3) were not sufficient to render the product sterile with respect to the inoculated levels of each organism type examined (i.e. Actual PU < Target PU). However, Table 4 shows that the actual microbial reductions obtained for vegetative C. perfringens cells were smaller than the detection level for this organism, which on initial inspection seems surprising given the greater heat resistance of this organism (Table 3). However, this apparent decrease in the thermal resistance of C. perfringens vegetative cell could possibly be attributed to the terminal influence of chilling on C. perfringens vegetative cells (Danler et al., 2003). However, similar reports of B. cereus inactivation on chilling have not been found in the literature. Interestingly the actual spore reduction was significantly higher than the predicted spore reduction and this was especially evident for C. perfringens spore cocktails. In general spores are not inactivated by pasteurisation temperatures. Therefore, factors present in the current study, that were not present in the study by Byrne et al. (2006) may have attributed to the higher reduction of spores. These factors could include [1] the RF energy having a non-thermal effect on the inactivation of the spores (Geveke & Brunkhorst, 2003; Kozempel, Annous, Cook, Scullen, & Whiting, 1998; Ponne, Balk, Hancioglu, & Gorris, 1996; Geveke & Brunkhorst 2004); [2] the longer heating Table 4 Summary of surviving B. cereus and C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores in the pork luncheon roll following the heat hold cool protocol described in Sections 2.4 and 2.5. B. cereus C. perfringens Vegetative cells Spores Vegetative cells Spores Pre-cook Average (log10 cfu g1) 7.5 7.6 6.9 7.7 Post-cook Average (log10 cfu g1) Standard deviation N Maximum Minimum 2.2 0.593 20 3 0.5 5.8 0.216 20 6.1 5.3 <1 cfu in 10 0 20 0 0 3.6 0.86 20 5.7 1.7 Reduction pre-Posta Average (log10 cfu g1) 5.3 1.8 6.9 4.1 a c Predicted reduction imposed by the heat treatments was calculated by dividing the PU for each microorganism by its reference Dh value. 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