Kinetic modeling of inactivation of natural microbiota and Escherichia coli on cherry tomato treated with fixed multi-frequency sonication.

ABSTRACT

The suitability of some non-linear kinetic models (Weibull {with or without tail}, Log-linear, Log-linear shoulder {with or without tail}, Biphasic linear, Logistic, Multi-target and Single-target models) were evaluated to determine the inactivation kinetics of inoculated E. coli, and natural microbiota (i.e. mesophilic aerobic bacteria, and mold and yeast) on cherry tomato treated with fixed multi-frequency ultrasound. Almost all the studied model fitted well (R2 ≥ 0.9) for the inactivation kinetics; however, the Weibull, Log-linear shoulder, and Biphasic linear model showed the highest statistical parameters (0.9 ≤ adj. R2 ≤ 0.99 and smallest RMSE and SSE values). All the three models could be used to compare the kinetic behavior of E. coli and the first two models for the kinetic behavior of mesophilic aerobic bacteria and mold and yeast during sonication treatment. Two distinctive inactivation curves were obtained for the mono-frequency and the multi-frequency (dual and tri-frequency) for all the microbial inactivation. The remarkable results obtained for dual and tri-frequency sonication shows to be an effective and promising alternative to the traditional microbial inactivation techniques and the common practice of using ultrasound with other sanitizing methods.