Ultrasound on Milk Decontamination: Potential and Limitations Against Foodborne Pathogens and Spoilage Bacteria

Ultrasound is an emerging non-thermal and environment-friendly technology with high potential applications for milk and dairy products. However, several bacterial factors still limited industrial adoption. Bacterial morphological aspects in ultrasound efficacy and mechanisms promote the lack of this technology and restrict the improvement of bacterial inactivation. Hence, this review focused on the capacity of ultrasound in the inactivation of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria in milk. In addition, this paper presents the key scientific limitations on the use of ultrasound on an industrial scale. The knowledge of the limitations allows (i) the study of optimal conditions for the application of ultrasound in milk in different bacterial genera and (ii) the eligibility of other inactivation methods aiming at the combined use to increase the efficiency according to the hurdle theory. Thus, reaching higher levels of microbiological safety with environmental sustainability may be in the near future.

Automated summary

Ultrasound is a promising non-thermal technology for sterilizing milk and dairy products, but there are limitations to its industrial adoption. This review focuses on the capacity of ultrasound to inactivate pathogenic and spoilage bacteria in milk and discusses the scientific limitations of using ultrasound on an industrial scale.