UV-C LIGHT AND OZONE UTILISATION IN FOOD PROCESSING WITH ONLINE MONITORING USING AN OPTICAL FIBRE SENSOR SYSTEM

摘要

Food products such as minimally processed fresh vegetables are in increasing demand. It is very important for these types of products to maintain their sensory and microbiological quality. To reduce microbial spoilage and increase their lifespan, these products can be treated with sanitizing agents. A microwave radiation device as source of germicidal UV light and ozone has been developed which may offer speed, cost and energy benefits to the food industry. The effectiveness of intense UV exposure for short periods of time alone or combined with ozone exposure was assessed on several microorganisms. With this system comes the need to monitor a number of conditions, primarily UV intensity and ozone gas concentrations. An optical fibre sensor system has been developed to analyse these properties, in order to control and optimise the outputs of the microwave plasma UV lamp. The results on the biocidal capacity of the microwave generated UV light and ozone will be presented.