Vol. 12, Issue 6 (2023)

Author(s):
Pratheepa Velumani, Mamatha Rani Rangaswamy, Venkatachalapathy Natarajan, Anandakumar Sugumar, Baskaran Nagarethinam and Vidyalakshmi Rajagopal

Abstract:
Foodborne outbreaks associated with Salmonella in low-moisture foods have increased in the last two decades. Concern about the safety of low-moisture foods has also increased. Spices are considered a high-risk low moisture food for Salmonella. The decontamination of spices is a crucial step in spice processing. Adapting a non-thermal technology may improve the effectiveness of inactivation. UV-C is electromagnetic radiation that has germicidal activity and was used as a decontamination technique for red chilli powder in this study. The wavelength used for this study is 254nm. And the inactivation of Salmonella was evaluated using mini-VIDAS. The result showed that UV-C radiation has an inactivation effect on chilli powder. The UV-treated sample for 15 and 20 minutes showed VIDAS test values of 2.54 and 0.97, which are greater than the threshold values. UV-C cannot inactivate Salmonella completely in the sample. So, when combined with other thermal and non-thermal technologies, it may increase the effect of inactivation.