Disinfection of fruits is one of the most important steps since they are going to be eaten fresh-or minimally-processed. This step affects quality, safety, and shelf-life of the product. Despite being a common sanitizer in the fruit industry, chlorine may react with organic matter leading to the formation of toxic by-products. Alternative sustainable disinfection strategies to chlorine are under study to minimize environmental and human health impact. Water-assisted UV-C light (WUV-C) is proposed here as an alternative sanitizing method for strawberries. In this study, strawberries were washed for 1 or 5 min in a tank with 2 or 4 lamps on, each emitting UV-C light at 17.2 W/cm², or in a chlorine solution (200 ppm, pH 6.5). Moreover, trials with 4 lamps on, together with a washing solution consisting on peracetic acid at 40 or 80 ppm, were carried out. Overall, quality and nutritional parameters of strawberries after treatments were maintained. Changes in color were not noticeable and fruits did not lose firmness. No major changes were observed in antioxidant activity, organic acid, anthocyanin, vitamin C, and total phenolic content. Yeasts and molds were not affected by the WUV-C treatment, and 5 min were needed to significantly reduce total aerobic mesophylls population. However, reductions of artificially inoculated Listeria innocua and Salmonella Typhimurium after WUV-C treatments were comparable to those obtained with chlorine-wash, which were 3.0 log CFU / g. Moreover, WUV-C light was effective to minimize microorganisms remaining in washing water, avoiding cross-contamination and thus, allowing water recirculation. This effect was improved when combining the action of UV-C light with peracetic acid, showing the suitability of this combined treatment, understood as an alternative to chlorine sanitation, for sanitizing strawberries and keeping the populations of pathogenic bacteria in washing water lower than 0.6 ± 0.1 log CFU / mL.

水果消毒是最重要的步骤之一，因为它们将以新鲜或最少加工的方式食用。此步骤影响产品的质量，安全性和保质期。尽管氯是水果工业中的常用消毒剂，但氯可能会与有机物发生反应，从而导致有毒副产物的形成。正在研究氯的替代性可持续消毒策略，以最大程度地减少对环境和人类健康的影响。本文提出了水辅助UV-C光（WUV-C）作为草莓的另一种消毒方法。在本研究中，将草莓放在装有2或4盏灯的水箱中洗涤1或5分钟，每盏灯发出的UV-C光为17.2 W / cm ²，或在氯溶液（200 ppm，pH 6.5）中。此外，还进行了4盏灯点亮的试验，以及40或80 ppm的过乙酸清洗液。总体而言，处理后草莓的质量和营养参数得以保持。颜色变化不明显，水果也没有失去硬度。在抗氧化剂活性，有机酸，花色苷，维生素C和总酚含量方面未观察到重大变化。酵母和霉菌不受WUV-C处理的影响，需要5分钟才能显着减少总需氧叶肉群体。但是，人工接种的无毒李斯特菌和沙门氏菌的减少WUV-C处理后的鼠伤寒与用氯洗涤得到的鼠伤寒相当，为3.0 log CFU / g。此外，WUV-C光可有效减少洗涤水中残留的微生物，避免交叉污染，从而使水再循环。当将UV-C光与过氧乙酸的作用相结合时，该效果得到了改善，表明这种联合处理（被认为是氯消毒的替代方法）适用于消毒草莓并保持冲洗水中的病原菌数量低于0.6± 0.1 log CFU / mL。