Decontamination of fresh produce by the use of slightly acidic hypochlorous water following pretreatment with sucrose fatty acid ester under microbubble generation

Effects of Chlorine-Based Antimicrobial Treatments on the Microbiological Qualities of Selected Leafy Vegetables and Wash Water

“…Ono et al (2005) reported that combining sugar ester treatment with weakly acidic hypochlorous water (pH 6.0, 100 mg/L available chlorine) for sanitizing shredded vegetables was more effective in the reduction of bacterial populations (by 2.1 _ 4.1 log cfu/g) than using weakly acidic hypochlorous water alone. Soli et al (2010) reported the efficacy of combinations of weakly acidic hypochlorous water, pretreatment with sucrose fatty acid ester, micro-bubbling, and mild heating for sanitizing lettuce, which reduced viable counts by 3 _ 4 log. Huang et al (2006) described the efficacy of chlorinated water combined with ultra-sonication against E. coli O157:H7 in strawberries and broccoli.…”

Application of a Combined Decontamination Method for Fresh Produce Using SAHW, Sucrose Fatty Acid Ester and Microbubbles

“…Our recent studies (Soli et al, 2010a;Soli et al, 2010b) showed that SAHW (30 mg/L available chlorine) at ambient temperature (25 ± 2℃) has sufficient bactericidal effect on pure cultures of some Gram-negative (Salmonella enteritidis, Escherichia coli) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus) pathogenic bacteria, as well as on other bacterial strains (Flavobacterium or Xanthomonas sp., Pseudomonas sp., Kurthia sp., Micrococcus sp., Corynebacterium or Microbacterium sp.) isolated from fresh lettuce.…”

“…In Japan, 2007 statistics by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare reported an estimated 1000 outbreaks of food-borne illnesses comprising about 4,000 cases associated with composite ready-to-eat foods and about 1000 cases associated with vegetables and vegetable products (Koide et al, 2009;Soli et al, 2010a). Decontamination of produce plays an important role in the preservation of food quality and safety of consumption (Nguyen-The and Carlin, 1994).…”

“…Decontamination of produce plays an important role in the preservation of food quality and safety of consumption (Nguyen-The and Carlin, 1994). Unfortunately, the 'fresh' nature of produce restricts the use of thermal decontamination (Soli et al, 2010a). Washing produce with tap water cannot completely remove pathogenic and naturally occurring microorganisms, and although sodium hypochlorite solution (100 − 200 mg/L available chlorine) is the most commonly used disinfectant, it is inactivated by organic materials and can lead to the formation of potentially carcinogenic and teratogenic trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids (Keskinen et al, 2009).…”

“…Japanese ginger recorded the highest viable counts of 9 log cfu/g on day 6 followed by perilla (8 log cfu/g) and the remaining vegetables at 7 log cfu/g. Our previous study (Soli et al, 2010a) showed that sucrose monopalmitate (100 mg/L, 5 min) under microbubble generation at ambient temperature (25 ± 2℃) had a higher efficacy in damaging bacterial cells on lettuce as compared to sucrose monolaurate. Moreover, we also found that after the combined sequential treatment of cut lettuce, viable counts decreased to 2 log cfu/g and increased to 3 log cfu/g after cold storage (6 − 7℃) for 5 days.…”