감압방전플라즈마에 의한 고춧가루 미생물 저감

목철균¹^,^*, 전형주¹

Reduction of Microorganisms in Red Pepper Powder by Low Pressure Discharge Plasma

Chulkyoon Mok¹^,^*, Hyungjoo Jeon¹

¹가천대학교 공과대학 식품생물공학과

¹Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, College of Engineering, Gachon University

^*Corresponding author: Chulkyoon Mok, Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, College of Engineering, Gachon University, San 65 Bokjeong-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, 461-701, Korea. Tel: +82-31-750-5403; Fax: +82-31-750-5273, E-mail: mokck@gachon.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2012 Korean Society for Food Engineering. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Feb 10, 2012; Revised: Mar 13, 2012; Accepted: Mar 13, 2011

Published Online: May 31, 2012

Abatract

Low pressure discharge plasma (LPDP) was applied to reduce the microbial counts of red pepper powder, and its effects on the quality were determined. Red pepper powder samples purchased in local markets showed substantial levels of microbial contamination; 7.33×10⁴-1.07×10⁷ CFU/g for bacteria and 3.47×10⁴-3.16×10⁶ CFU/g for mold counts. The LPDP inactivation of microorganism in red pepper powder followed a biphasic first order reaction kinetics. The LPDP inactivation rate constants increased with the input power and the fineness of particles, and showed greater values against mold than bacteria. Excessive LPDP treatment induced substantial changes in color and reduction in capsaicinoid contents. However the sensory color and taste were not changed significantly with the LPDP treatments for up to 5 min. The sensory flavor and overall acceptability remained unchanged with 10 min treatment. The optimum LPDP treatment time for red pepper powder was 5 min, which resulted in 1.5 log reduction in bacterial counts with no significant changes in sensory quality.

Keywords: red pepper powder; low pressure discharge plasma (LPDP); microorganism; inactivation; sensory quality