DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2013.v01i06.003

Pages: 238-241

Due to the environment in which they are grown, spices and herbs often harbor large numbers of bacteria and fungi, including potential spoilage organisms and occasionally organisms of public health significance. Although some microorganisms are killed due to the inbuilt antimicrobial compounds of spices and drying in the production process, many bacteria and mold survive if product is not properly process and stored. As such, disinfection of spices is one of the main concerns in spice industry to produce quality products. Disinfection can be performed by using physical or chemical methods. In most of the cases 2 % NaOCl treatment is used as a chemical treatment in spice industry. However, this gives only limited reduction in microbial count. Commercial NaOCl which used in these industries does not come in pure form. To increase its stability NaOCl solution it is mixed with NaOH (1 %) which reduce the efficiency of NaOCl against microbes. According to the findings of the present study, efficiency of NaOCl can be increased by adding with an acid (acetic acid) to increase the formation of hypochlorous acid. In this study three different concentration of NaOCl (200 ppm,250 ppm, 300 ppm) were combined with acetic acid concentration (1:0.5, 1:1, 1:2) and treated for three different soaking time (5 min, 10 min, 15 min). As per results 10 min soaking using 300 ppm NaOCl incorporated with acetic acid (1:1) was selected as the most suitable treatment to reduce microbes in spice industry. Total microbial reduction of 300 ppm NaOCl treatment at 10 min. soaking was increased from 103 to 105 by 1:1 acetic acid incorporation. Total coliform level was reduced to undetectable level after drying.