Antibiotics have been widely used to treat several infectious diseases. However, the overuse of antibiotics has promoted the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) in various fields, including the food industry. In this study, the antimicrobial efficacies of two conventional sterilization methods, mild heat, and sonication, were evaluated and optimized to develop a new strategy against ARB. Simultaneous mild heat and sonication (HS) treatment led to a significant reduction in viable cell counts, achieving a 5.58-log reduction in 4 min. However, no remarkable decrease in viable cell counts was observed in individually treated groups. Interestingly, the release of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) increased in a time-dependent manner in the heat-treated and HS-treated groups. The inactivation levels of ARGs increased as the HS treatment time increased from 2 to 8 min, and most ARGs were degraded after 8 min. In contrast, no significant inactivation of ARGs was observed in the heat-treated and sonication-treated groups after 8 min. These results reveal the synergistic effect of the combination treatment in controlling not only ARB but also ARGs. Finally, on applying this newly developed combination treatment to fresh food (cherry tomato and carrot juice), 3.97- and 4.28-log microbial inactivation was achieved, respectively. In addition, combination treatment did not affect food quality during storage for 5 days. Moreover, HS treatment effectively inactivated ARGs in fresh food systems.

抗生素已被广泛用于治疗多种传染病。然而，抗生素的过度使用促进了包括食品工业在内的各个领域抗生素耐药菌（ARB）的出现和蔓延。在这项研究中，评估和优化了两种传统灭菌方法（温和加热和超声处理）的抗菌功效，以开发针对 ARB 的新策略。同时温和加热和超声处理 (HS) 导致活细胞计数显着减少，在 4 分钟内减少了 5.58 个对数。然而，在单独治疗组中没有观察到活细胞计数显着减少。有趣的是，在热处理组和HS处理组中，抗生素抗性基因（ARG）的释放以时间依赖性方式增加。随着HS处理时间从2分钟增加到8分钟，ARG的失活水平增加，并且大多数ARG在8分钟后被降解。相反，8 分钟后，在热处理组和超声处理组中没有观察到 ARG 的显着失活。这些结果揭示了联合治疗不仅可以控制 ARB，还可以控制 ARG。最后，将这种新开发的组合处理方法应用于新鲜食品（樱桃番茄和胡萝卜汁）时，分别实现了 3.97 和 4.28 log 的微生物灭活。此外，联合处理在5天的储存期间没有影响食品质量。此外，HS 处理可有效灭活新鲜食品系统中的 ARG。