There are growing demands globally to use safe, efficacious and environmentally friendly sanitizers for post-harvest treatment of fresh produce to reduce or eliminate spoilage and foodborne pathogens. Here, we compared the efficacy of a pH-neutral electrolyzed oxidizing water (Ecas4 Anolyte; ECAS) with that of an approved peroxyacetic acid-based sanitizer (Ecolab Tsunami® 100) in reducing the total microbial load and inoculated Escherichia coli, Salmonella Enteritidis and Listeria innocua populations on post-harvest baby spinach leaves over 10 days. The impact of both sanitizers on the overall quality of the spinach leaves during storage was also assessed by shelf life and vitamin C content measurements. ECAS at 50 ppm and 85 ppm significantly reduced the bacterial load compared to tap water-treated or untreated (control) leaves, and at similar levels (approx. 10-fold reduction) to those achieved using 50 ppm of Ecolab Tsunami® 100. While there were no obvious deleterious effects of treatment with 50 ppm Tsunami® 100 or ECAS at 50 ppm and 85 ppm on plant leaf appearance, tap water-treated and untreated leaves showed some yellowing, bruising and sliming. Given its safety, efficacy and environmentally-friendly characteristics, ECAS could be a viable alternative to chemical-based sanitizers for post-harvest treatment of fresh produce.

全球对使用安全，有效和环保的消毒剂进行新鲜农产品收获后处理以减少或消除腐败和食源性病原体的需求日益增长。在这里，我们比较了pH值中性的电解水（Ecas4 Anolyte; ECAS）和经批准的过氧乙酸基消毒剂（EcolabTsunami®100）在减少总微生物负荷和接种大肠杆菌，肠炎沙门氏菌和李斯特菌收获后的婴儿菠菜叶种群数量超过10天。还通过保质期和维生素C含量评估来评估两种消毒剂对菠菜叶片整体质量的影响。与自来水处理或未处理（对照）的叶子相比，浓度为50 ppm和85 ppm的ECAS显着降低了细菌负荷，并且与使用50 ppm的EcolabTsunami®100达到的水平相似（降低约10倍）。 50 ppm和85 ppm的50 ppmTsunami®100或ECAS处理对植物叶片的外观没有明显的有害影响，自来水处理和未处理的叶片均显示出一些泛黄，淤青和粘稠。鉴于其安全性，功效和环境友好特性，ECAS可以代替化学消毒剂，用于新鲜农产品的收获后处理。