Pre-harvest sanitization of irrigation water has potential for reducing pathogen contamination of fresh produce. We compared the sanitizing effects of irrigation water containing neutral electrolyzed oxidizing water (EOW) or sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) on pre-harvest lettuce and baby spinach leaves artificially contaminated with a mixture of Escherichia coli, Salmonella Enteritidis and Listeria innocua (~1 × 10⁸ colony-forming units/mL each resuspended in water containing 100 mg/L dissolved organic carbon, simulating a splash-back scenario from contaminated soil/manure). The microbial load and leaf quality were assessed over 7 days, and post-harvest shelf life evaluated for 10 days. Irrigation with water containing EOW or NaClO at 50 mg/L free chlorine significantly reduced the inoculated bacterial load by ≥ 1.5 log₁₀, whereas tap water irrigation reduced the inoculated bacterial load by an average of 0.5 log₁₀, when compared with untreated leaves. There were no visual effects of EOW or tap water irrigation on baby spinach or lettuce leaf surfaces pre- or post-harvest, whereas there were obvious negative effects of NaClO irrigation on leaf appearance for both plants, including severe necrotic zones and yellowing/browning of leaves. Therefore, EOW could serve as a viable alternative to chemical-based sanitizers for pre-harvest disinfection of minimally processed vegetables.

收获前对灌溉水进行消毒有可能减少新鲜农产品的病原体污染。我们比较了含有中性电解氧化水 (EOW) 或次氯酸钠 (NaClO) 的灌溉水对被大肠杆菌、肠炎沙门氏菌和无害李斯特菌混合物人为污染的采前生菜和小菠菜叶的消毒效果（~1 × 10 ^{8 个}菌落形成单位/mL，每个重新悬浮在含有 100 mg/L 溶解有机碳的水中，模拟受污染土壤/粪便的溅回情况。在 7 天内评估微生物负荷和叶子质量，并在 10 天的时间内评估收获后的保质期。与未处理的叶片相比，用含有 50 mg/L 游离氯的 EOW 或 NaClO 的水进行灌溉，可显着降低接种细菌负荷 ≥ 1.5 log ₁₀ ，而用自来水灌溉，可使接种细菌负荷平均降低 0.5 log ₁₀ 。在收获前或收获后，EOW 或自来水灌溉对小菠菜或生菜叶面没有视觉影响，而 NaClO 灌溉对两种植物的叶子外观有明显的负面影响，包括严重的坏死区和叶子变黄/褐变。树叶。因此，EOW 可以作为化学消毒剂的可行替代品，用于对最低限度加工的蔬菜进行收获前消毒。