Irradiation sterilization of spices

The main methods to kill microorganisms in spices are as follows:

Through heating sterilization, high temperature and high pressure sterilization, microwave sterilization, electromagnetic wave sterilization, these methods may cause serious loss of product flavor, color darkening and poor sterilization effect;
 

There are also individual enterprises using chemical sterilization, its disadvantages and limitations are also obvious: there will be chemical residues, the smell will be significantly worse.

Irradiation sterilization (radioactive element cobalt 60) is usually used in spice production enterprises

But so far, experts and scholars all over the world have not reached a conclusion on the safety of irradiated food, and many consumers are still skeptical about the safety of such food and are worried about it when they buy it;

 

Many developed countries in the world have already made it clear that irradiation is not allowed for food sterilization, such as the European Union, South Korea and Japan (many large-scale instant noodle factories in China export to them in large quantities);

 

Although the United States, China and other countries allow the use of irradiation sterilization, but the dose must be strictly limited (China's 10kGy limit "irradiation food hygiene management measures"), and clearly require that the food packaging must indicate that the product or its components have been irradiated for sterilization.

 

Steam sterilization, which has been widely used in other fields for a long time, has been gradually applied to spices.

 

At present, Germany, France, Japan and many other countries have invented and put into use complete sets of equipment for steam sterilization of spices and other crops, including continuous and batch type, which can achieve the desired effect (the total number of colonies reaches below 1000). The disadvantage is that the equipment is expensive. It is understood that few enterprises in China have introduced this equipment, so the steam sterilization spice products are still available Should not ask.

 

Short time high is usually used in the steam sterilization of spices Temperature (stht) is based on the principle that high temperature saturated steam has strong penetrability and adsorption. It can heat microbial cells rapidly in a short period of time to solidify and denature protein until death. However, steam has no destructive effect on natural plant roots, stems and leaves, which contain little protein, and only may cause partial loss of natural volatile aromatic oil contained in it due to high temperature volatilization However, as long as the process conditions (temperature and time) are well mastered, these deficiencies can be completely overcome to achieve the purpose of sterilization; then, it is processed through low-temperature drying, cooling, crushing and other processes, and the whole process should be carried out in a clean environment to ensure that the product is not subject to secondary pollution.

 

The general method adopted by the European Union is en 13751-2002 light stimulated luminescence method (PSL method for short). The judgment is divided into three sections. The reading below 700 is safe, 700-5000 is low risk, and over 5000 is high risk. This method avoids misjudgment caused by spices themselves.

 

At present, only a few big companies, such as Riqing and Nongxin, have introduced the equipment. The equipment is very sensitive to irradiators. If the product is irradiated with 1kGy dose, its reading can reach more than 10000.

 

If the minimum radiation dose is 4kgy, the reading can be as high as 700000-800000.

 

In the production process, it is also produced in strict accordance with the requirements of ISO22000 and HACCP quality management system. The production process is: air separation, picking, crushing, steam sterilization, drying, cooling, crushing, iron removal, packaging, gold detection, inspection and warehousing.

 

The process conditions of sterilization will be determined according to the requirements of different products and different customers, and the whole process from sterilization to packaging shall be carried out under clean conditions; before production, production personnel will thoroughly clean and disinfect production equipment, appliances, site and air, and quality control personnel will regularly take samples for colony collection, coating and cultivation; each batch of raw materials will be commissioned to Riqing company for production after passing the inspection, After sampling, the product is sent to Nissin, and the product can be delivered only after passing the test. The final microbial results of the product can be guaranteed to ensure that the coliform group is negative, the total number of colonies is less than 10000, and the irradiation index is less than 700.