Modeling of Listeria monocytogenes survival and quality attributes of sliced mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) subjected to pulsed UV light

Abstract

Pulsed ultraviolet (PUV) light technology holds the potential for surface decontamina-tion of foods. In this study, the survival of L. monocytogenes and some quality attri-butes (color, moisture, water activity, and antioxidant activity) of sliced mushroomssubjected to PUV light were modeled using data obtained from a previous study.Three mathematical models, log-linear model, Weibull model, and log-logistic modelwere used to describe the inactivation of L. monocytogenes with respect to fluence(J/cm2) at three treatment distances (5, 8, and 13 cm) from the quartz window of thePUV-light system. Weibull model (R2adj: 0.8598–0.9820, root mean square error[RMSE]: 0.09–0.24) described the inactivation better compared to log-linear model(R2adj: 0.7205–0.9072, RMSE: 0.22) and log-logistic model (R2adj: 0.4871–0.7629,RMSE: 0.24–0.46). The survival curves of L. monocytogenes at all treatment distancesshowed upward concavity. These findings indicate that the survival ofL. monocytogenes on sliced mushrooms subjected to PUV light follows a non-lineartrend, and the Weibull model may be a useful tool to predict the behavior ofL. monocytogenes on mushroom surface subjected to PUV light. For the quality attri-butes, zero-order kinetics (R2: 0.8500–0.9974, mean square error (MSE): 1.55*10−8–2.3124) described the changes slightly better compared to first-order kinetics (R2:0.8451–0.9974, MSE: 1.55*10−8–2.3867).