ABSTRACT

The increased cases of food-borne outbreaks associated with microbial contamination of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables have underlined the importance of safe and effective sanitizing agents in the food industry. This study was conducted to comparatively evaluate the sanitizing effects of optimized aqueous ozone conditions (5 ppm dissolved ozone for an exposure time of 8 min and aqueous pH of 3.01), 100 ppm chlorine and water washing treatments on the cut slices (4 ± 1 mm) of onion (Allium cepa L). The treated samples were packed in cling wrapped tray packs and were stored under ambient (26.8–37.3°C, 10–57% RH) as well as refrigerated conditions (5 ± 1°C, 90 ± 1% RH) and were monitored for quality parameters at regular intervals (1 day for ambient and 5 days for refrigerated storage conditions). Among the samples stored under ambient conditions, aqueous ozone-treated samples had a significantly better shelf life (2 days) as compared to chlorine-treated (1 day) samples. Whereas, under refrigerated storage conditions, a higher shelf life was observed for minimally processed onion treated with chlorine (16 days) followed by ozone (13 days). The microbial load on the ozone and chlorine-treated produce was 8.4 log (cfu g⁻¹) and 7.4 log (cfu g⁻¹) respectively, after 2 weeks of refrigerated storage. Optimized conditions of aqueous ozone were observed to yield a competitive sanitizing efficiency as compared to 100 ppm chlorine.

摘要

与鲜切水果和蔬菜的微生物污染相关的食源性疾病暴发病例的增加凸显了安全有效的消毒剂在食品工业中的重要性。本研究旨在比较优化的臭氧水溶液条件（5 ppm 溶解臭氧，暴露时间 8 分钟，水溶液 pH 值为 3.01）、100 ppm 氯和水洗对切片（4 ± 1 毫米）的消毒效果) 洋葱 ( Allium cepaL)。将处理过的样品包装在保鲜盒中，并在环境（26.8–37.3°C，10–57% RH）和冷藏条件（5 ± 1°C，90 ± 1% RH）下储存并监测定期质量参数（环境条件下为 1 天，冷藏条件下为 5 天）。在环境条件下储存的样品中，经臭氧处理的水溶液样品的保质期（2 天）明显优于氯处理（1 天）样品。然而，在冷藏条件下，用氯处理（16 天）和臭氧处理（13 天）处理的洋葱的保质期更长。臭氧和氯处理农产品的微生物负荷为 8.4 log (cfu g ^-1 ) 和 7.4 log (cfu g ^-1) 分别在冷藏 2 周后。观察到与 100 ppm 氯相比，臭氧水溶液的优化条件产生了具有竞争力的消毒效率。