DEVELOPING MODEL-BASED TOOLS FOR QUANTIFYING RISK MITIGATION AND VALIDATING COMMERCIAL DRY-ROASTERS

The goal of this research is to develop an enhanced understanding of pathogen-reduction achieved during roasting of low-moisture foods such that preventive controls can be shown to be valid and foodborne illness risk reduced. The hypothesis of this project is that foodborne illness risk can be estimated using physical conditions within the product bed and inactivation kinetics characterized at the product's surface. Specific aims to accomplish this goal are:Specific Aim 1: Develop a heat and mass transfer model to quantify temperature and moisture at the surface of a low-moisture food as a function of process conditionsSpecific Aim 2: Quantify inactivation kinetics for Enterococcus faecium on the surface of a low-moisture food as a function of temperature and moistureSpecific Aim 3: Estimate foodborne illness risk under commercial processing conditions