Elimination of pathogenic bacteria from Lebanese Tahini and Halawi products.

Description :

In the last few decades, low moisture-high fat colloidal foods such as Tahini and Halawi have been identified as unusual sources of Salmonella spp. and other pathogenic bacteria outbreaks. This has led to an increase in the risk incidence at the human health level or at the economic level, including the exportation and the reputation of the Lebanese products. This project will focus on all critical hazardous points during Tahini and Halawi production process (soaking, roasting, etc.) in which a contamination by Salmonella spp. and other pathogenic can occur. Thus, complete decontamination of these products using different techniques will be achieved. First, novel techniques of pressure and time modification will be used to decontaminate raw sesame seeds. Second, reducing the number of pathogenic bacteria during soaking step will be conducted using different antimicrobial agents. Furthermore, the effect of various chemicals agents to prevent and eliminate pathogenic biofilms formed on stones and stainless-steel during production will be also assessed. At the end, an optimization of the time and temperature parameters during the roasting step in addition to pasteurization will help toward reaching a pathogen free Lebanese product without any alterations in its organoleptic quality.