Low-Energy Pulsed Electron Beam Technique for Microbial Inactivation

A recent multi state outbreak of pathogenic bacteria in fresh foods highlighted the fundamental need to introduce a novel, next generation and highly efficient microbial intervention techniques to deal with such outbreaks and to reduce biological threats. There is increasing demand for compact, non-thermal antimicrobial techniques for household use, yet such techniques are currently lacking. Therefore, we propose a novel antimicrobial technique, which is based on low-energy high-power pulsed electron beam that is referred to as secondary emission electron gun (SEEG). The technique produces a low-energy (<100 keV), high power (180 KW), and short duration (5 mus) pulsed electron beam for nonthermal surface decontamination of microbes
¹
. Our experimental investigation proves SEEG as a viable antimicrobial technique for inactivation of non-pathogenic stains of E. coli JM 109 as well as both vegetative and spores of Bacillus subtilis RB 14 (B. Subtilis) on nutrient agar plate
^1,2
. The D
₁₀
-values calculated from the survivor curves for E. coli subjected to a single (0.0031 Gy) or five electron beam pulses (0.0271 Gy) suggests SEEG as a highly efficient next generation antimicrobial intervention technique 3. In this paper, we cover a brief review on existing conventional non-thermal antimicrobial techniques and highlight on our preliminary investigations of elucidating mechanism of inactivation by low energy pulsed electron beam. We further discuss our research initiative with SEEG which is significant in light of the recent outbreaks implicating fresh, leafy vegetables, likely spinach, contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7, or peanut butter contaminated with Salmonella.