Optical fiber temperature sensors: Applications in heat treatments for foods

Heat treatments are important methods to provide safe foods. Conventional heat treatments involve the application of steam and recently microwave treatments have been studied and applied as they are considered as fast, clean and efficient. Optical fiber sensing is an excellent tool to measure the temperature during microwave treatments. This paper shows the application of optical fiber temperature sensing during the heat treatment of different foods such as vegetables (jalapeno pepper and cilantro), cheese and ostrich meat. Reaching the target temperature, important bacteria were inactivated: Salmonella, Listeria and Escherichia coli. Thus, the use of optical fiber sensors has resulted be a useful way to develop protocols to inactivate microorganisms and to propose new methods for food processing.