Comparison of efficacy of appliances to be used at home and other places for fresh produce decontamination and cleaning
Date
2023
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Consumers need assistance in avoiding food-borne outbreaks associated with bacteria such as Salmonella. For fresh produce, heat treatments are not typically an option. In this study, three appliances with non-thermal technology were tested to determine efficiency and efficacy of washing and sanitizing fresh produce. Two of the appliances are currently available to the public, while one is still in development and testing in our laboratory. Grape tomatoes and spring salad mixes were used as samples to provide different surface textures: smooth and rough. They were inoculated using two methods, dip or spot inoculation, with a four-strain Salmonella cocktail to achieve an initial population of approximately 8-log CFU/g. The apparatuses involved used either ozone, ultrasonic, or ultrasound to treat the samples, and the samples are treated within 4 gallons of water at 3, 6 and 9 minutes, respectively. The results for inactivation of the Salmonella included about a 3-log reduction for tomatoes, and about less than a 1-log reduction for salad when sanitized with ozone, and ozone with ultrasound, and about a 3-log reduction for tomatoes and about a 2-log reduction for salad when sanitized with shortwave ultraviolet light radiation. The effect of duration of treatment time on Salmonella inactivation can be noted here, as the longer the samples underwent each treatment, the number of bacterial colonies reduced. At 3 minutes, the UV apparatus had the best inactivation amount compared to the other two apparatuses. In terms of texture and color change, the UV with water agitation did not significantly affect texture and color, the use of ozone significantly affected texture, and the combination of ozone with ultrasound significantly affected texture and color. In the future, UV with water agitation could be a viable alternative – instead of washing under running water- for consumers who want to keep the quality of their fresh produce.
Description
Keywords
Salmonella, Appliances, Fresh produce, Ultrasound, Consumers