Abstract
ABSTRACT: The application of ozone as a treatment system for reducing microbial contaminant in Nipa bowls which are local products of the Palian river basin community, Trang province in Southern Thailand, was presented in this research. The ozone treatment system was designed and investigated for its performance to reduce microbial contaminant in nipa bowl products. Parameters affecting the performance of the system were optimized as well as ozone amount and treatment time. Under optimum condition (600 mg/h ozone and treatment time of 4 hours), the microbial decontamination was 4 log reduction, and the products could be stored for one month. The moisture content and the brightness of the ozone-treated products were significantly different from the untreated products when statistically tested at 95% confidence level. The moisture contents were 9.46 ± 0.10 and 10.54±0.31 %, and the brightness (L* value) were 74.93 ± 0.49 and 70.47 ± 0.65 for the ozone-treated and untreated products, respectively. Furthermore, the residual heavy metals were investigated, and no trace of metals was reported in nipa bowl samples. As a result, the nipa bowl products had met the standards as regards safety of food containers required by the Department of Medical Sciences Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. Following this collaboration between the university and the community, over 251,564 pieces of nipa bowls were sold which generated a total income of more than 84,000 USD to the Palian river basin community.
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