Dr. Pathima Udompijitkul 

My research group focuses on developing alternative and effective strategies to inactivate foodborne pathogenic bacteria in various food commodities as well as food-contact surfaces with a special interest in food-associated endospore-forming bacteria.

Since bacterial spores are highly resistant to many food processing-related and environmental stresses, complete eradication or inhibition of spores have always been a challenge for food industries. Elucidating the mechanisms of action of spore-inactivating interventions is also our priority to improve the spores’ inhibition efficacy. Furthermore, my current research interests are to employ various novel processing technologies, both thermal and non-thermal, to improve safety of food products intended to consume raw and the application of alternative sanitizing agents to enhance microbiological quality and safety of fresh produce. We also had an expertise in conducting an inoculation pack study for various types of food products to validate the actual manufacturing processes employed by food industries.