Manufacturers can test the Listeria-killing potential of heat
treatments in factories by using the enzyme amylase to simulate
the behavior of the pathogen, scientists have discovered. The
industry uses heat treatment as an additional safeguard to kill
off pathogens in products such as ready-to-eat foods, which
involve minimal cooking after processing. Amylase has the same
rate of degradation when subjected to heat as Listeria and is
harmless if ingested. Research fellow Sonja Gronqvist at
Norwegian food research institute Nofima devised the method as
one of two ways to test the reliability of heat treatment
methods in eliminating Listeria monocytogenes in food. The other
procedure involved examining the effect of heat treatments on
actual Listeria microbes encapsulated in alginate beads.
However, because this involves the use of a pathogen, food
safety rules dictate that it can’t be used on production lines.
More trustworthy picture By contrast, the simulation method
could be and consequently provided a more