ABSTRACT
Food is rich in nutrients and water causing proliferation of microorganisms present in these types of biotic environments. Food safety is an area of increasing concern as microbial contamination causes food-borne illnesses and may also lead to deterioration of food quality (Chemat and Khan 2011). Therefore, thermal treatment is commonly used to inactivate microorganisms, with the effectiveness of this treatment enhanced with increasing temperature and treatment time (Dolatowski et al. 2007). However, severe thermal treatments lead to higher loss of nutrients and of the organoleptic properties of the food products (Chandrapala et al. 2012). Nowadays consumers demand high quality food that is safe and minimally processed. Thus, there is growing interest in the development of non-thermal technologies that ensure that these demands are met (Cárcel et al. 2012, Ulusoy et al. 2007). One such technology gaining importance in the food industry is ultrasound, a process with signifi cant advantages which include that it is relatively cheap and energy saving (Awad et al. 2012). According to Earnshaw et al.
