Mazidah Abd Rahman

Citation

Thesis Title
Measurement of Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of Individual and Combinations of
Essential Oil Volatiles in Food

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Ms Mazidah’s research investigated the measurement of the Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC’s) of essential oils required to prevent the growth of spoilage organisms on foods. Her findings showed that in current best practice vapour based systems, the dynamics of vapour release and absorption are important and that the headspace concentrations vary with time, making reporting of a MIC difficult. By considering the partitioning behaviour of the volatiles in the air and food phases, a novel measurement system was developed. This system provided very stable headspace concentrations and allowed repeatable MIC values to be measured. The system was demonstrated for individual and combinations of volatiles in a food matrix. This method provides a basis for more quantitative characterisation of the relative effectiveness of different essential oils and target concentrations for development of controlled release active packaging.

Supervisors
Professor John Bronlund
Mr Tom Robertson