Effects of combined high pressure (HPP), pulsed electric field (PEF) and sonication treatments on inactivation of Listeria innocua

Suspensions of non-pathogenic Listeria innocua ATCC 33090 in water were exposed to different combinations of high hydrostatic pressure (HPP), pulsed electric field (PEF) and sonication treatments. Treatments were conducted individually, or in various combinations - sequential HPP-PEF; sequential PEF-HPP, simultaneous HPP-PEF, sequential HPP-sonication and sequential sonication-HPP. The greatest reduction by an individual treatment was obtained with HPP, wherein exposure to 400 MPa for 100 s resulted in an 8 log reduction in CFU. Both PEF (30 kV, 10−3 s) and sonication (250s) treatments gave about 2 log reduction in the Listeria population. Sequentially applied HPP-PEF, and PEF-HPP treatments demonstrated mostly additive effects. Notably, however, a synergistic effect was observed when PEF and HPP were applied simultaneously. Combinations of HPP and sonication treatments demonstrated synergistic effects when HPP treatment was followed by sonication, but additive effects when sonication was followed by HPP. A relationship between Listeria innocua inactivation and increase in the suspension zeta potential was observed. However, protein content of the supernatant was found insignificant, indicating that leakage from cells were non-protein cell constituents.