Non-Thermal Decontamination of Food

Abstract

In today’s generation the demand of fresh food with absence of harmful micro-organisms is increasing with world-wide awareness of the health benefits and risks associated with consumption of food. Meeting consumers’ expectation is necessity of the food industry. Food borne illness as a result of either post contamination or inefficient processing of food with pathogenic bacteria is a world-wide concern in this millennium. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reported and documented Salmonella as the most common cause of food-borne outbreaks in the EU 3. Numbers of outbreaks of foodborne diseases due to salmonella spp., L. Monocytogens and E. coli have been reported and documented worldwide which caused loss of many lives in last few decades. United States Centers for disease control and prevention, reported that two-thirds of foodborne illness is caused by human enteric viruses i.e. nor virus (NoV), hepatitis A and E.