Synergistic effect of sonication and microwave for inhibition of microorganism

Millions of people across the world have been the victims of food-borne illnesses. The contamination of foods with harmful pathogens at different stages of processing is inevitable and therefore, many thermal and nonthermal microbial inhibition technologies are being practiced. However, all the existing methods possess some limitations effecting the final quality leading to consumer unacceptance. The individual application of ultrasound and microwave technologies in inhibition of microorganisms gained importance recently due to enhanced microbial load reduction, and reduced processing time thereby making the process economically feasible at an industrial level. The efficient lethal effect on microbial organisms with minimum quality degradation upon application of ultrasound and microwaves has grabbed the interest of researchers into synergism. There are very few studies on the synergistic application of ultrasound and microwaves in food decontamination. The current chapter describes the synergistic effect of ultrasound and microwaves on microbial inhibition and quality attributes in foods.