2011 Volume 16 Issue 2 Pages 79-83
The decontamination effect of milling by a jet mill was investigated by counting the number of bacteria in brown and white rice flour with mean particle diameters of 3, 20, and 40μm prepared by the jet mill. In the jet mill, the particles are crushed and reduced in size by the mechanical impact caused by their collision. Although the brown and white rice grains were contaminated with approximately 106 and 105 CFU/g bacteria, the microbial load of the rice flour decreased as the mean particle diameter decreased, ultimately decreasing to approximately 104 and 103 CFU/g in the brown and white rice flour. The temperature and pressure changes of the sample were not considered to have an effect on reducing the bacterial count during the milling. Hence, it was thought that the rice flour was decontaminated by other effects.
