Recently published reports

Development of low a_w food and environmental decontamination

Studies have been carried out into validation of low a_w food and environmental decontamination processes. Roasting of whole cocoa beans was selected to provide a model process on which to base the low a_w food study and the environmental study focused on the thermal decontamination of stainless steel surfaces under low moisture conditions. In both studies, Salmonella spp. were targeted due to their ability to survive desiccation and their association with food poisoning outbreaks associated with low a_w foods. Research findings are published in Development of low a_w food and environmental decontamination: inactivation kinetics (RD422), available to members on the project web page.

Contact: Rob Limburn
+44(0)1386 842493
rob.limburn@campdenbri.co.uk

Evaluating consumer and sensory methods

Robust but more rapid and cost–effective evaluation methods involving sensory assessors and/or consumers are required. Ongoing work is evaluating a selection of traditional and novel sensory and consumer methods that can support the product development process. In the second report (An evaluation of traditional and novel sensory and consumer methods suitable for product characterisation: sensory methods (part 2) – RD423), the focus was on the sensory methods investigated for the evaluation of eight or more samples (large sample sets). Some of the key findings were that:

• Traditional Profiling and Holistic approaches provided similar sample configurations;
• Traditional Profiling and ‘Holistic–Comparative’ or polebased approaches provided quite different sample configurations;
• and ‘Holistic–Comparative’ or pole–based approaches provided very different sample configurations.

The full report is available to members on the project web page.

Contact: Marleen Chambault
+44(0)1386 842256
marleen.chambault@campdenbri.co.uk