The effect of high-dose-rate X-rays on E. coli 0157:H7 in ground beef

The emergence of pathogens in today's world has increased the need for new, portable, nonthermal sterilization technologies. The University of Missouri, Columbia in cooperation with the Institute of Electrophysics, Ekaterinburg, Russia, have built and tested a new accelerator based on solid-state opening switches for the disinfection of pathogens in food. The accelerator utilizes a new solid-state opening switch to generate 40 ns, 2OO-keV electron beam pulses. These pulses were then converted to Bremsstrahlung X-rays using an integral X-ray converter. The efficacy of treating E. coli 0157:H7. In ground beef was tested by irradiating frozen ground beef with the high-dose-rate 10/sup 7-6/ rads/s X-ray pulses. Comparison studies were also done with a Cobalt-60 source located at the Missouri University Research Reactor. The results of the study are presented in this paper.