Assessment of the efficiency of ozone application for post-harvest microbial disinfection of some fruits and vegetables

Abstract

The treatment of ozone is widely used for post-harvest fruit and vegetable processing because of its high activity and safety. As opposed to the gaseous form, the aqueous form is more active. The technique and commodities are major factors in determining the ozone efficiency ratio. Fresh products are a source of pathogen organisms such as Fecal coliform (FC) that are considered a threat to quality and health. This study applied to evaluate the quality and safety of some fruits such (as apples and oranges) with some fruit vegetables like (tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, cucumber, and squash), as well as some vegetables such as (lettuce, and arugula) by detection ratio of FC microorganisms. These classes of products were exposed to (3 mg/L) aqueous ozone for 5 minutes. Overall, these concentrations improved entire products. Ozon application lowered the overall activity of contaminants about 25 times from 2792.26 to 105.96 RLU/cm2 after processing. Most of the commodities as eggplant, lettuce, apples, and orange were disinfected and other products significantly decreased. The system is capable of inactivating about 6935.3 relative light units (RLU/cm2) of FC in an ideal situation