Microbial challenge study and quality evaluation of cumin seeds pasteurized by continuous radio frequency processing

The objective of this study was to validate the continuous radio frequency pasteurization of cumin seeds and evaluate cumin quality after treatment. In the present study, microbial validation of continuous radiofrequency (RF) pasteurization of cumin seeds was investigated. The specific heat capacity was measured for three batches of cumin samples with two replicates. Specific heat capacity values of batch 2 and 3 were similar, while the values showed variation when compared to that of batch 1. Overall, no significant differences were found in color, total phenolics, antioxidant activity and relative compositions of volatile compounds in cumin seeds before and after continuous RF pasteurization. However, when individual peak areas of volatiles were compared, the treated samples of all three batches were significantly different from their corresponding control samples. This continuous RF microbial validation study can be used for scaling-up RF pasteurization technology to an industrial scale. This study shows that RF holds a great potential for the industrial pasteurization of cumin seeds.