Decontamination of food products with superheated steam

Food products can often be contaminated with mycotoxins and spores, many of which are resistant to heat. To ensure the safety of our food supply they must be reduced or eliminated from the final product through processing procedures. The effects of superheated steam (SS) as a processing medium on grains contaminated with the Fusarium mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) and with Geobacillus stearothermophilus spores are presented here. The processing temperature was between 110 and 185 °C with three steam velocities of 0.65, 1.3 and 1.5 m/s for DON contaminated wheat and between 105 and 175 °C at one steam velocity of 0.35 m/s for mixture of sand and spores. Reductions in DON concentration of up to 52% were achieved at 185 °C and 6 min processing time. This was due only to thermal degradation and not to solubilization and extraction. The effect of processing with SS on heat resistant spores was conducted for processing times of 0.5–480 min. The thermal resistance constant for G. stearothermophilus was determined to be 28.4 °C for the SS processing temperature of 130–175 °C. The first 5 min of SS processing were most effective in the reduction of spores. The use of SS has proven itself to be beneficial by reducing the contamination in foods in addition to any drying that may occur.