4. Discussion
4.1. Effect of electric field strength and temperature
Inactivation of Bacillus spores was very limited when using only
strong electric field intensities (Fig. 2a); even with outlet
temperatures up to 60 C after 20 pulses, both factors (PEF and
temperature) were not enough to achieve a high degree of spore
death. A similar study by Cserhalmi, Vidács, Beczner, and Czukor
(2002) was conducted with B. cereus spores in 0.15% NaCl using
electric field strengths from 10 to 25 kV cm1 and maintaining the
temperature between 23 and 30 C. After applying about 8.3 bipolar
square pulses (2 ms each) the maximum inactivation achieved
previously was 0.4 log (Cserhalmi et al., 2002).