Abstract
Raw salads are frequently subjected to hypochlorite wash to reduce microbial numbers, retard enzymatic activity and improve shelf-life of sensory quality. Hypochlorite dips significantly reduce the initial population of natural contaminants on lettuce. However, populations on treated and untreated samples are not significantly different after four days storage at refrigeration temperature. Increasing the level of free available chlorine does not improve the microbicidal effect. In this study sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) was used to disinfect salad vegetables. Though the principal salad vegetable used was butterhead lettuce, results show that the efficacy of NaDCC in reducing total aerobic mesophile levels varies with vegetable type. NaDCC gives an acid pH in solution and has significantly higher activity than sodium hypochlorite. For longer term storage, preparation of lettuce which included a 30 min soak in NaDCC improved the microbiological quality of the produce at the end of the storage period. The microbial load on disinfected produce was between 0.62 and 0.98 log cycles lower than on lettuce prepared without a disinfection step for up
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