Detection of microbial contamination in fruit juices using non-invasive ultrasound

The aim of this work is to analyze the viability of using non-invasive ultrasonic methods to detect microbiological contamination in industrial fruit juices. Microbial growth in UHT fruit juices was monitored by an ultrasonic measuring system based on pulse transmission. The wave time of flight across different media was registered continuously during incubation. Three types of juices were used as substrate: apple juice, orange juice and peach&grape juice, and three different microorganisms were separately inoculated in these juices: bacteria (acidolactic mixture), yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and molds (Aspergillus niger). It is shown that time of flight evolution is clearly affected by the growth of such microorganisms, these changes being dependent on the juice and the contaminant agent. These results support the viability of using ultrasonic measuring devices to assess the microbiological quality control in juices, decreasing detection times and reducing economical wastes when contaminations appear.

[1]  P. R. Kulkarni,et al.  Rapid non-microbiological methods for detecting microorganisms in foods , 1992 .

[2]  Francisco Montero de Espinosa,et al.  On-line ultrasonic velocity monitoring of alcoholic fermentation kinetics , 2009, Bioprocess and biosystems engineering.

[3]  F. Montero de Espinosa,et al.  Ultrasonic measurement device for the characterization of microbiological and biochemical processes in liquid media , 2007 .

[4]  D. Laux,et al.  Potential use of physical measurements including ultrasound for a better mango fruit quality characterization , 2013 .

[5]  Luis Elvira,et al.  Monitoring of lactic acid fermentation in culture broth using ultrasonic velocity , 2007 .

[6]  J. Maestre,et al.  Contribución al diagnóstico precoz de bacteriemia: detección del crecimiento microbiano en medios , 2001 .

[7]  U. Faust,et al.  Determination of Biomass by Ultrasonic Measurements , 1989, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[8]  J. García,et al.  Monitoring Escherichia coli growth in M63 media by ultrasonic noninvasive methods and correlation with spectrophotometric and HPLC techniques , 2009, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[9]  J R Maestre,et al.  [Contribution to the early diagnosis of bacteremia: microbial growth detection in liquid culture media by ultrasound]. , 2001, Enfermedades infecciosas y microbiologia clinica.

[10]  P. Wareing,et al.  Microbiology of Soft Drinks and Fruit Juices , 2007 .

[11]  Y. H. Hui,et al.  Advances in food diagnostics , 2007 .

[12]  David Julian McClements,et al.  Analysis of the sugar content of fruit juices and drinks using ultrasonic velocity measurements , 2007 .

[13]  Maria Papagianni,et al.  Advances in citric acid fermentation by Aspergillus niger: biochemical aspects, membrane transport and modeling. , 2007, Biotechnology advances.

[14]  F. Montero de Espinosa,et al.  Non-invasive and non-destructive ultrasonic technique for the detection of microbial contamination in packed UHT milk , 2005 .