A middle section (4–6 cm) was aseptically dissected from the infrared treated sample and then immediately transferred to a 250-ml Erlenmeyer flask containing 100 ml of ice-cold sterile 0.1% peptone–water to allow rapid cooling.
Each Erlenmeyer flask containing the infrared treated frankfurter sample was then maintained on ice ( < 1 h).
For practical purpose, the sections covered by the thermocouple and metal hook were discarded.
Only the sections directly exposed to infrared waves were used for determination of bacterial counts.
Three frankfurter samples were used for each temperature treatment in an experiment.
The experiments for each temperature treatment were replicated
five times.