Modelling the combined effect of chlorine, benzyl isothiocyanate, exposure time and cut size on the reduction of Salmonella in fresh-cut lettuce during washing process.

Modelling the combined effect of chlorine, benzyl isothiocyanate, exposure time and cut size on the reduction of Salmonella in fresh-cut lettuce during washing process. Food Microbiol. 2020 Apr;86:103346 Authors: Cuggino SG, Bascón-Villegas I, Rincón F, Pérez MA, Posada-Izquierdo G, Marugán J, Pablos Carro C, Pérez-Rodríguez F Abstract This work aimed to study the effect of the combination of Sodium hypochlorite, the most used disinfectant by the vegetable industry, with a natural antimicrobial, benzyl-isothiocyanate (BITC), considering cutting surface and contact time, on the reduction of Salmonella in fresh-cut produce in washing operations under typical industrial conditions. Overall, the combinations of disinfectant and process parameters resulted in a mean reduction of Salmonella of 2.5 log CFU/g. According to statistical analysis, free chlorine and BITC concentrations, contact time and cut size exerted a significant effect on the Salmonella reduction (p ≤ 0.05). The optimum combination of process parameter values yielding the highest Salmonella reduction was a lettuce cut size of 15 cm2 washed for 110 s in industrial water containing 160 mg/L free chlorine and 40 mg/L BITC. A predictive model was also derived, which, as illustrated, could be applied to optimize industrial disinfection and develop probabilistic Exposure Assessments considering the effect of washing process parameters on the levels of Salmonel...
Source: Food Microbiology - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Food Microbiol Source Type: research