Ultra-Violet Treatment for Fermenting Low-Salt Soya Sauce

Low-salt soya sauce has become a market trend due to consumers' demand for a low sodium diet life. In tradition, a low-salt soya sauce (with salt concentration below 14.4%) is made from a high-salt one (18% salt concentration) through diluting or reducing the sodium content. The post processing deteriorates the quality of the soya sauce produce as some specific, beneficial chemical components are inevitably removed. In production of a native-born low-salt soya sauce, a key problem encountered is possible microbial contamination that easily develops in a low salt environment. In this study, we evaluated the effect of ultra-violet (UVC 254nm) irradiation on soya mash of 12% salt concentration fermented at 35°C. The ultra-violet treatment could effectively prevent the soya mash from microbial contamination.