Inactivation of Vegetative Bacteria by Rapid Decompression Treatment

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We investigated the inactivation and injury effects of hydrostatic pressure treatment combined with a slow decompression (SD treatment) and a rapid decompression (RD treatment) on several vegetative bacterial strains. Single decompression time for the SD and RD treatments was longer than 30 s and about 1 ms, respectively. The RD treatment gave significantly ( P < 0.05) smaller D and z values than the SD treatment, showing that the RD treatment was more effective than the SD treatment in inactivating vegetative bacteria and in lowering the treatment pressure. It was suggested that a rapid decompression procedure could enhance the degree of pressure‐mediated injury, which caused the higher bactericidal effect of the RD treatment.