Studies on the <i>Campylobacter jejuni</i> Sterilization System Using UVA-LED for Cooking Utensils

Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) is a causative food poisoning bacterium, it mainly ingesting undercooked chicken meat. Additionally, cooking utensils treated with raw chicken meat contaminated with C. jejuni and can induce the cross-contamination of food. Therefore, disinfection of kitchen equipment is a critical for prevention of C. jejuni infection. Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation is useful method for sterilization and UVC wavelength is mainly utilized. Recently, we developed UVA-light emitting diode (LED) irradiation system as new disinfection methods. However, the effect of UVA-LED irradiation against the cooking utensils contaminated with C. jejuni is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effect of UVA irradiation for C. jejuni contaminated kitchen equipment, stainless tray and kitchen knife. We treated the cooking utensils with raw chicken meat and/or C. jejuni suspension and irradiated UVA-LED for 30 min. After UVA-LED irradiation, the log survival ration of general bacteria and C. jejuni were reduced at −1.63 and −3.13, respectively in stainless tray experiments. In kitchen knife experiments, general bacteria and C. jejuni was not detected in UVA-LED irradiated kitchen knife. Our results indicate that UVA-LED irradiation may be useful for cooking utensils contaminated with bacteria, especially C. jejuni.