Abstract
Abstract Washing and sanitization are considered particularly critical steps for the microbiological quality of fruits. At this stage, it is important to select the sanitizer which must have microbiological effectiveness. In the literature, there is a great interest on alternative sanitizers for microbiological quality control of food. This study aimed at verifying the effectiveness of sodium hypochlorite, ozone, ultrasound and citric acid as well as associations of ultrasound to the other techniques mentioned above in the microbiological quality control of strawberries cv. Oso Grande. In these trials, the fruits were initially subjected to artificial contamination by a strain of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and thereafter part of them was reserved as control samples; the remainder was submitted to different kinds of sanitization treatment. Then, some microbiological analyses of coliforms counts at 45 °C were performed with those present in the control samples and in the post-sanitization samples, through the enzymatic technique of chromogenic substrate. The three most efficient treatments for maintaining the microbiological quality of the fruit were 2% citric acid, 2% citric acid associated with ultrasound and ozone.
Highlights
Chlorine and its derivatives have been known as the most commonly used substances for sanitizing fruits
Strawberry samples were subjected to an artificial contamination procedure by the strain of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, according to the methodology described by Moraes et al (2008)
The culture of E. coli in BHI agar was used in the logarithmic phase of growth and from it, a suspension was performed in 9.0 mL sterile saline solution, in the same turbidity as the tube 10 from the McFarland scale
Summary
Chlorine and its derivatives have been known as the most commonly used substances for sanitizing fruits. It gets more clear that the most powerful and effective sanitizers must be explored. The use of ozone as a sanitizer is related to its high biocidal effectiveness, wide antimicrobial spectrum and absence of health-threatening residues. In order to ensure an effective disinfection, it is required monitoring the availability of the product during the treatment, so that the initial and residual concentrations could be monitored (González-Aguilar et al, 2010; Santos & Roza, 2010). When ozone is used in post-harvest treatments, its high oxidation power can promote undesirable changes in food quality. For this reason, an optimal optimization of the food treatment conditions must be done (Souza et al, 2018)
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