Standardization of UV-C treatment, Ozonization and chlorination for reducing microbial growth in carrot under laboratory conditions

Abstract

The in-vitro lab experiment was conducted at the Department of Food Process Engineering, Agricultural Engineering College & Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to find out the effect of physical (UV-C treatment) and chemical treatments (Ozonization and Chlorination) on inactivation of microbial growth in freshly harvested new carrot variety korda collected from farmer Mr. Saji in Hanumanthapuram, Ooty, Tamil Nadu. From the results it was observed that by UV-C irradiation there was one log reduction in microbial growth even at 0.050 kg/m2. Hence, the chosen UV-C dosages were not sufficient for inactivation of total microbial load and were not taken for further study. In case of chemical treatment ozonation and chlorination, treatment with different concentration of chlorine viz., 50, 100, 150 and 200 ppm, and Ozonization for 10, 20 and 30 min. It were concluded that the carrot washed in 200 ppm chlorine concentrated water and in 30 min treated ozone water showed 3 log reductions in bacterial and 2 log reduction in fungal population.