Modeling of UV-C survival of foodborne pathogens and predicting microbial inactivation on fresh-cut ‘Tommy Atkins’ mango using CFD

Abstract

Abstract Shortwave ultraviolet light (UV-C) disinfection is an emerging technology used to enhance food safety by reducing the pathogen load. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) served as a numerical simulation tool to calculate the average radiation intensity within a disinfection chamber. The resulting CFD data was employed to estimate the UV-C inactivation kinetic parameters for Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes. Experimental procedures involved irradiating bacterial suspensions with UV-C doses ranging from 0 to 6.028 kJ/m2. The inactivation of S. Typhimurium was described using a log-linear equation, while UV-C survival curves for E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes were best fitted to Weibull model. Subsequently, the integration of CFD simulations and kinetic parameters enabled the estimation of UV-C doses approaching 6 kJ/m2 for the treatment of fresh-cut ‘Tommy Atkins’ mangoes inoculated with the mentioned microorganisms. This integrated approach partially predicted the inactivation of pathogens on the surface of mango spears.