Abstract: In recent years, pathogenic infections related to the consumption of unhygienic foods have frequently occurred. Foodborne pathogens are not only seriously hazardous to human life, but also they hinder the development of food, medical and other related industries. Although the traditional sterilization methods can effectively kill pathogenic bacteria, they are often time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially for the food industry, they can damage the texture and flavor of foods. Besides, the emergence of drug-resistant pathogens due to antibiotics abuse poses a severe challenges to human beings. Continued scientific efforts have been made to explore better sterilization solutions. Sonodynamic sterilization technology is a new type of non-thermal sterilization technology, which has attracted much attention due to the advantages of being fast and safe, strong penetrability and good biological inactivation effect. This article summarizes the mechanism of sonodynamic sterilization technology, and analyzes the influence of sonosensitizer, ultrasonic and other factors on acoustic power sterilization as well as recent progress in this regard, which may provide a theoretical rationale for the application of sonodynamic sterilization technology in the food safety area.

Key words: sonodynamic technology; foodborne pathogenic bacteria; sonosensitizer