Abstract
The present purpose is to study the influence of far-infrared irradiation on pasteurization of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus on or within a model for wet-solid food. Agar medium was used as the food model. By determining the thermal resistances of the test bacteria, the pasteurization effect of far-infrared irradiation (radiative heating) was compared with that of hot-air heating (a conventional method) from the viewpoint of thermal death kinetics. It was found experimentally that far-infrared irradiation is more effective than hot-air heating for the test bacteria on the agar-plate. Moreover, it is suggested that the surface temperature of the pasteurization sample irradiated by far-infrared radiation is higher than that measured by the thermocouples.
