The Effect of Pulsed UV Light on Biochemical Changes: Quail Egg Model for Salmonella Typhimurium Inactivation

Foodborne Salmonella infections pose a critical threat to public health and the disinfection potential of non-thermal technologies such as pulsed UV light is becoming increasingly important.The aim of this study was to determine the biochemical changes in quail eggs at varying process parameters in the model application of pulsed UV light for Salmonella Typhimurium inactivation.In this context, pulsed UV light was applied to quail eggs at distances of 5, 8, and 13 cm and durations of 20, 40, and 60 s.Salmonella Typhimurium inactivation was observed in all quail eggs depending on the treatment distance and duration and biochemical changes in quail eggs were evaluated in terms of thiobarbituric acid, phenolic and antioxidant content, fatty acid composition and color change.Salmonella inactivation was observed in all treatments.However, phenolic and antioxidant contents decreased for the longest time and at the closest distance in the application processes, while thiobarbituric acid and linoleic acid content (control:13.35%5D60S:25.51%)increased.The increase in the amount of linoleic acid in 5D60S and 5D40S was higher than that in other samples.Although pulsed UV light is effective in Salmonella inactivation, long duration/close distance applications may adversely affect product quality.These findings emphasize the importance of parameter optimization in the food industry and reveal the need to develop protocols that are safe but minimize quality loss.