ABSTRACT

Ozone gas (O₃) is used as an oxidizing agent and can be applied as a sanitizer to control microorganisms and degrade toxic compounds, such as pesticides and mycotoxins, in food industries. Some studies investigated the use of O₃ as an agent to reduce pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella enteritidis. The action of O₃ on the eggshell cuticle and structures of filamentous fungi is still not yet well studied. In this work, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to assess the hens’ eggshell structure after the exposition to O₃, mainly to obtain information about the potential antifungal action. The SEM micrographs obtained shown that the application of O₃ during 120 min damaged fungi hyphae adhered to the eggshell cuticle without severely compromising the external structure of the eggshell. Further studies are necessary to establish an ideal O₃ treatment for the fungal decontamination of chicken eggs.

摘要

臭氧气体 (O ₃ ) 用作氧化剂，可用作消毒剂，以控制食品工业中的微生物和降解有毒化合物，例如杀虫剂和霉菌毒素。一些研究调查了使用 O ₃作为减少致病菌（如肠炎沙门氏菌）的药剂。O ₃对丝状真菌的蛋壳角质层和结构的作用尚未得到很好的研究。在这项工作中，扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 用于评估暴露于 O ₃后母鸡的蛋壳结构，主要是为了获得有关潜在抗真菌作用的信息。获得的 SEM 显微照片表明，O _3的应用在 120 分钟内，受损的真菌菌丝附着在蛋壳角质层上，而不会严重损害蛋壳的外部结构。需要进一步的研究来建立一种理想的 O ₃处理方法来去除鸡蛋的真菌污染。