Review Contemporary strategies in combating microbial contamination in food chain Andreja Rajkovic ⁎, Nada Smigic, Frank Devlieghere Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation, Department of Food Safety and Food Quality, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Food2Know, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium abstract article info Keywords: Decontamination Preservation Hurdles Virulence Resistance Food The objective of this review has been to disclose collected information on benefits and risks of selected “less- than – sterilizing” processes applied to control microbial hazards in food that was meticulously collected and critically reviewed during five years of EU Sixth framework project “Pathogen Combat”. The target organisms of the project, and thus of this review, too, were Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter jejuni. Due to their specific response and high relevancy to the food safety, foodborne viruses and spores, were also discussed within the scope of this review. Selected treatments comprised High Pressure Processing, Intense Light Pulses, treatments with organic acids, treatments with chlorine dioxide and for their relevancy also mild heat treatments and Pulsed Electric Field processing were included. The main aspects included in this review were principles of the processes used and their application, sub-lethal injury and its consequences on microbial food safety, and legal platform and its impact on wide use of the treatments. Finally a reflection has been made to combined application of different hurdles and accompanying risks. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S29 2. Mild heat treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S30 3. High pressure processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S31 4. Pulsed electric fields (PEF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S33 5. Intense light pulses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S34 6. Weak organic acid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S36 7. Aqueous chlorine dioxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S37 8. Food preservation by combined processes (hurdle technology) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S38 9. The risks to be considered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S38 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S39 1. Introduction Number of alternative methods and technologies rose up to replace historically proven heat treatments in attempt to satisfy modern trends in food consumption. These new trends were induced by the change in the consumers' perception of food quality and nutrition. The modern consumer seeks fresh looking, convenient and nutritionally healthy food. This requires from industry to adopt new strategies in safe food production, using sustainable methods with small carbon footprint. The main change in terms of microbial food safety is that sterilization and pasteurization as we knew them are in great extent replaced by mild heat treatments, high pressure processing, pulsed electric fields, intense light pulses, application of organic acids, chlorine dioxide, etc. The ability of these technologies, alone or in combination to inactivate micro- organisms, is beneficial for the applications in heat sensitive foods and ingredients and for minimization of adverse effects on the sensory characteristics of food products. Many of these novel technologies have been already subject of extensive research, but before actual commercial application takes place the number of technical, economical, and International Journal of Food Microbiology 141 (2010) S29–S42 ⁎ Corresponding author. Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation, Department of Food Safety and Food Quality, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, COUPURE LINKS 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Tel.: + 32 9 264 60 85; fax: +32 9 225 55 10. E-mail address: Andreja.Rajkovic@UGent.be (A. Rajkovic). 0168-1605/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2009.12.019 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Food Microbiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfoodmicro