Shelf life evaluation of fresh-cut red chicory subjected to different minimal processes

Evaluation of microbiological and physico‐chemical parameters of retail ready‐to‐eat mono‐varietal salads

“…The amounts of nitrate accumulated in leafy vegetables can determine a negative effect on human health. Nevertheless, the nitrate contents of escarole and red chicory were well below the maximum NO₃ nitrate levels admitted in some vegetables (European Union, ) and were not affected by cold storage as found for other leafy vegetables (Alfonzo et al, ; Miceli et al, ; Miceli & Miceli ). The nitrate content may vary greatly among vegetables; escarole and red chicory samples analyzed in this study had an average nitrate content of 1,065.0 and 445.0 mg/kg fw, respectively, that was similar to those found by other authors (Moncada et al, ; Santamaria, ).…”

“…Regarding the chemical and physical parameters of the minimally processed escarole and red chicory, weight loss occurring during storage may negatively change the appearance and quality of leafy vegetables, especially in those subjected to the cut operation as fresh‐cut products (Toivonen & DeEll, ). Nevertheless, minimally processed vegetables are generally packed in sealed plastic films that have low permeability to water vapor determining a very high relative humidity (RH) inside the sealed bags (almost 100% RH) (Alfonzo et al, ; Miceli & Miceli, ; Miceli, Romano, Moncada, D’Anna, & Vetrano, ; Watada & Qi ), so dehydration is not a main issue as we found for fresh‐cut escarole and red chicory. Moreover, products stored in sealed plastic bags at low temperature usually have a low respiration rates (Alfonzo et al, ), as confirmed by the very small reduction of SSC.…”

“…Nevertheless, minimally processed vegetables are generally packed in sealed plastic films that have low permeability to water vapor determining a very high relative humidity (RH) inside the sealed bags (almost 100% RH) (Alfonzo et al, ; Miceli & Miceli, ; Miceli, Romano, Moncada, D’Anna, & Vetrano, ; Watada & Qi ), so dehydration is not a main issue as we found for fresh‐cut escarole and red chicory. Moreover, products stored in sealed plastic bags at low temperature usually have a low respiration rates (Alfonzo et al, ), as confirmed by the very small reduction of SSC. TA increased significantly during storage, probably due to tissues breakdown that vegetables suffer during storage.…”

“…Total color difference (ΔE) recorded after 9 days of storage at 4°C could be classified as very distinct (Δ E > 3; Adekunte, Tiwari, Cullen, Scannell, & O’Donnell, ) for both escarole (3.5) and red chicory (4.4) but did not determine reduction of the overall appearance below the sensory acceptability. Overall appearance of RTE escarole and red chicory changed significantly during storage, but after 9 days at 4°C OQ scores were still above the limit of marketability thus confirming that these vegetables have a shelf life longer than the expiration date when stored continuously at low temperature (Alfonzo et al, ; Cefola, Carbone, Minasi, & Pace, ).…”

“…In fact, several soil bacteria are able to internalize and can contaminate fresh vegetables from the inside (Settanni, Miceli, Francesca, Cruciata, & Moschetti, 2013) making inefficient the decontamination by post-harvest washing treatments. At the past, the microbiological quality of commercial RTE salads has been approached by considering mix of vegetables (Jackson et al, 2013;Leff & Fierer, 2013) but very limited information are available on the bacterial evolution of a given mono-varietal vegetable (Alfonzo et al, 2018), in order to predict the microbial dynamics of commercial leafy vegetable salads.…”